Belonging
by kaattiiee
Summary: 2 years into the future, Dr Denman returns to the Gold Coast. Disturbing visions bring a different kind of mermaid to the Gold Coast who wants desperately to help, no matter what - But what happens when they think she's just another "Charlotte"? FINISHED!
1. Memories of the Moonpool

Full Summary:

After a few rough years, Californian mermaid Cora moves to the Gold Coast, sensing a danger to others of her kind. But when Cora tries to befriend Emma, Cleo and Rikki when they assume she's another Charlotte – without even knowing she is a part of their secret – trouble arises for Cora and she must make a deadly choice.

It may have been 5 years ago, but I doesn't feel like it's been any more than a few minutes. Despite everything I've gone through since then, it still feels like it was yesterday.

_**Flashback, 5 years ago - Cora**_

_We descended the slope of the mountain, following the path that we had hiked so many times before. My older sister and I could see our destination now; the beautiful waterfall that crashed down into a huge crystal pool. It was dark; the moon was full but the lush trees blocked out most of the light, but we didn't need it – we had come here so many times with our parents that we could have been blindfolded and made it. We started climbing the steep grassy path that led up to the mouth of the waterfall, and I felt a smile creep across my face as we neared the small cave that fresh water ran through from the top of the mountain and fed out into the waterfall._

_As we approached the entrance to the cave, my older sister Mattie stepped in front of me and reached her hand back to take mine. I smirked. She did not need to protect me, but since our parents died two years ago in the accident, she took on complete responsibility for me, like the second coming of our mother. She put her college years on hold and held a full time job to support us both, and the minute I was old enough to work in our home state of California I have worked waitressing – in the restaurant belonging to my friend's parents. She is 5 years older than me, a beautiful sweet 20 year-old woman, and my best friend. Mattie has never been one who knows what she's doing in the kitchen and she's a little messy, so I handle our food and cleaning: we are a well-oiled, functioning 2-person unit._

_I know she doesn't like that I work. I know that she wants me to be a teenager, but we have the same wants: I want her to be taken care of, and she wants me to be. My big sister is my whole world, she'll learn to deal with my helping out._

_I took her hand and I followed her lead, walking a bit slower as we approached the cave. Out in the open now, the full moon lit everything a pale blue. It was lovely, just like how it was when our mother and father would bring us here when we were small. Mattie peeked her head into the entrance and took a quick look around the place. Finding it empty, she gently let my hand go and stepped inside and I followed her. _

_We stood quietly for a minute and I could feel in the air that she was thinking about our family visits to this exact spot – I was too. But we did not cry now. Now, we smiled, as we knew our parents would want us to on this beautiful night._

_I stepped carefully over the small river that ran through the cave and up to the other end of the cave where the waterfall dropped over the ledge of the mountain and into the pool below us. My eyes grew wide; the full moon made a perfect huge reflection right over the center of the pool, making my face bright as I stood at the edge of the waterfall looking down at it. It was absolutely breathtaking._

"_Mattie, come look at this!" my voice was excited and I heard my sister coming up at the other side of the waterfall. _

"_Be careful by that edge, Cora," She said half under her breath, knowing that I would be. She reached the other side of the waterfall's edge and looked down at the pool. I looked over at her and beamed; she was smiling, and I saw the look on her face that I loved to see; she was thrilled. Nature made us happy, and this was incredible. The breeze blew a little and I saw her pulling her dark copper hair back into a ponytail. I knew what this meant and I pulled up my brownish black ponytail into a knot on top of my head._

"_You first." She said, grinning at me. I squirmed sheepishly, looking at the water._

"_Hmm." I smiled a little; I knew we both wanted to, we hadn't dived here since our parents passed away. But, it was time now, and we both knew it. I stretched my hand out across the waterfall, and Mattie took it. With a mental count to three, we stepped back a little and jump off the edge of the waterfall, landing feet first through the beautiful reflection of the moon in the pool._

_It took us a few seconds to surface and we were both beaming. The large freshwater pool felt just like it used to._

_Except for one thing._

_I felt a little bit of movement against my legs and for a moment thought it was a small school of freshwater fish until the movement was going up my legs, not across them… _

"_Mattie, do you feel that?"_

"_Yeah, look, it's a bunch of little bubbles! This pool must have a hot spring at the bottom, I remember reading about there being a few of those in our area…"_

_I nodded and smiled a little, staring up at the moon. It just felt so safe, so comforting, and then I heard Mattie gasp. My head snapped in her direction immediately. I could see in the moonlight that she was groping around under the water and hoped she hadn't dropped anything, or worse, been hurt by something underwater._

"_Mattie??"_

"_Uh… Cora… do you feel different?"_

_My smile faltered a little bit. I was happy, I was comfortable, but something was a little…off._

"_Well, now that you mention it…"_

"_Cora, sweetie. I need you to reach down…and touch your legs."_

_I looked at her strangely in the moonlight and lowered my hands in the water to my legs. I froze the minute I touched them. They were gone, in their place was one, scaley tubey __thing__ under the water. I tried pulling my legs apart – no dice. I blinked at Mattie, who had the same blank expression on her face – we were freaked out._

"_Uhh, Mattie? I think it's time to get out."_

"_Agreed."_

_**Present day**_

A smile comes to my face every time I think about it. It helps me reassure that what I'm about to do is the right thing.


	2. Bitter Visions

**A/n:** Wow, thanks for the feedback guys. Haha. SO I see that some people have some questions, which I'm thrilled about – I love em!

**In response to eagle 219406:** I don't want to explain everything here, as the FULL answer to your question gets explained throughout the story and more in depth soon. **But!** I am very glad you asked, I was hoping somebody might! While I can't tell you now, I CAN give you a hint – _it isn't the same moonpool as the H2O girls'_; I mentioned it being located in California. It's also freshwater, not saltwater. That won't make sense until later on, but those are your hints, lol No worries because this develops more in this chapter and should start to clear some things up for you. Thanks for your feedback!

**In response to janny108:** Glad you asked! I hinted at it in the full summary at the start of the last chapter, but I can't give any more away for now. All I can say is… keep reading, and you'll see! Thanks for your feedback, too! :]

**This will be a REALLY long chapter**, because it will be the final "introductory" chapter. I didn't want to have three of those, so I packed a lot into this one. It has the rest of the background that you guys will need for now, so I hope you enjoy!

**--**

_**Flashback 2 years ago - Cora **_

It had taken months for Mattie and I to accept what had happened to us. For a long time we tried to deny it, but after a thousand botched showers and spilled glasses of water, it became a little hard to deny the grayish silver tails that replaced our legs. But believe me, we tried for a while.

However, after our denial subsided our curiosity bloomed. Mattie and I have always been devoted to science, especially chemistry, and after the incident we had turned to science to try to better understand what was happening to us.

We've run tests, looked at countless of our own cell samples under a microscope, used the resources of the chemistry lab of the college that Mattie now attended and run our DNA twice. We've done countless tests on ourselves and after 3 whole years of being mermaids, one of the most frustrating things we've dealt with is how unscientific it is: our DNA hasn't been altered from being mermaids. Our blood is the same as it always has been. Nothing followed the rules of science; everything seemed so abstract at first, and that was hard to grasp, especially for Mattie who is in school as a biology major.

However as the months progressed, the abstractness of being mermaids began to fall into place and we learned quite a few fascinating things about our new secret lives. One of our first hands-on experiments was with salt water. We had learned quickly that within 5 full seconds (6 if we got lucky) of fresh water touching our skin, we would change. However, since we lived close to the beach and had spent most of our time there in the past, we wondered how our tails would affect our ability to spend time at the beach.

"Anybody coming, Mattie?" We were crouched behind a huge gathering of black boulders on the beach, hovering over a still pool of salty ocean water. Mattie shook her head and I took in a deep breath, stuck my finger in the water and waited. 5 seconds passed, and I still had legs. Mattie looked puzzled, and after 10 seconds still nothing had happened and so I sunk the rest of my hand into the puddle. Nothing.

"Sit in it!" Mattie said eagerly, staring down at me.

"EXCUSE me?! _You_ sit in it."

"You're already down there, Cora, come on before somebody shows up!"

I grumbled. She was right, but she was lucky I loved her. I picked my hand up out of the puddle and braced myself with my arms and sat in it. We waited. 5 seconds and nothing. 10 and nothing, then 20, 30, and a full minute. Nothing happened, and I still had legs. Did we only change into mermaids in freshwater…? I looked up and saw Mattie looking out at the waves. She didn't look back at me but I knew she could feel my eyes on her.

"Cover me, Cora."

"What are you doing?" I started to get up out of the puddle but she was already walking quickly towards the water.

"Just cover me!" She called back at me, running into the water and once she was deep enough I saw her dive and go under. I hurried to the water's edge with the large towel we'd brought and watched the waves like a hawk. When I didn't see Mattie after a few seconds, my heart started pounding. This was a critical moment for us. After about 15 seconds, I saw her push her upper body up out of the shallow waves – she had changed, and she was smiling at me from the ocean, laughing a little as she flicked her tail at me, splashing me a little. I grinned back and she reached her hand out, and I quickly waded into the water and pulled her up on the beach and we began the task of drying her off as quickly as we could. After about a minute of running the towel over her tail, her legs emerged and she was back in her day clothes. She smiled excitedly at me.

"We have to be completely submerged, Cora. Otherwise, I think... I think we're okay!"

That was one of the most important discoveries we had made. We didn't have to give up the beach!

-

There was something new to be learned about our new lives every day, but the strangest for me occurred one morning before I woke up for school.

I thought it was a dream at first; in it, I had seen three blurry figures. I couldn't see faces or details, only blurbs of colored clothing and smudges of blonde and brown hair. I saw them in a small pool, and the bright blue light that I knew of the full moon. I watching them, I could feel the same tingling in my legs that I had felt on that fateful night with my big sister. In the dream, I felt a wave of fear, confusion and nerves wash over me and after a few seconds I saw the three blurry figures disappear from the surface of the small pool and swim out a rocky escape. I woke up startled with my heart pounding and saw that it was the morning; and I had to get ready for school!

I threw the covers off of my body only to look down, stunned: my tail had taken the place of my legs, but not a spot of water had touched me. I had a strange sensation in my stomach; this wasn't just a dream, now I was sure of it. I squeezed my eyes shut briefly thinking my imagination was getting to me. The second my eyes closed I saw a flash of three familiar human blurs, a little clearer this time, transforming into three familiar human blurs – with orange tails.

"Mattie?!" I called out, sitting up in my bed a little higher. After a few seconds, my sister came through my door and lifted an eyebrow when she saw my tail, saying nothing, "I think… I think there are more of us." I felt my mouth turn up in a smile.

-

After that day my visions came regularly. Many of them of the same three unknown mermaids, some of them of Mattie. In the case of my sister, the visions proved to be predictions of things to come; I assumed that this was also true for what I saw of the other three mermaids. For the most part these visions were harmless, until one morning.

I woke up panicked. My vision had been of Mattie. And it had been anything but harmless.

I hurried down the stairs and saw my sister at the dining room mirror fixing her hair. She was dressed for the job she had had for a few months working at a bank in town – exactly the place I needed to keep her from going.

"Mattie?!"

"You can't tell me not to go to work, Cora."

"You could at least let me _try_." I knew that Mattie had already heard what I wanted to tell her. It was an ability she had developed, being able to hear me thinking about her.

"This new job is important, sweetie. I can't use up vacation days yet, you know that."

"I know it is, but Mattie you have to understand… Men are going to come into the bank today…"

"…And try to rob it? Cora, you know how tight our security is down there. Idiots have tried to rob the place before, none have actually gotten away with it."

I sighed, frustrated. I knew this, but I know what I had seen. My vision had been crystal clear; these men were dangerous. Men with guns, men with a plan, and I didn't want then anywhere near my sister.

"Please, Mattie…"

"It will be fine, Cora," She said, picking up her purse and heading for the door. I followed her, "Really, I promise. I don't want you worrying, all right? You have a good day at school and I'll see you for dinner, okay?"

There was no fighting her on this. She was in full blown work-mode.

"All right."

"Good! See ya later, Cora, love you!" And with that, she was out the door.

But I wasn't going to school. Not today. Today I needed to focus my energy on my visions. I was going to keep an eye on Mattie even if she wouldn't stay at home.

I sat completely still on the steps in front of the front door for hours. My mind and sunk completely away from me, and I was following Mattie through her day at work. It was quiet for hours, but suddenly, through her eyes I saw three very familiar men come through the door. These were the men from my vision; these were the men with the guns, with the plans. I saw the man in the front smirk at my sister, open his jacket and pulled out his gun. I scrambled out of my vision breathing heavily. I bolted through the front door and ran as fast as my legs would take me, 2 miles away to the bank where Mattie worked. My lungs burned like fire and I stopped dead in my tracks when I reached the block. The bank was quadrened off, surrounded by police cars and onlookers. I didn't even realize my legs were carrying me towards the bank until I felt firm arms yanking me backwards.

"Whoa, whoa, where do you think you're going, kid?!" It was an officer. I didn't care.

"You don't understand! My… my sister! They've got my sister!" I must have sounded like a crazy person but it didn't matter. I was pulled back and away and was forced to listen to another officer with a megaphone try to negotiate with the robbers inside. I already knew that these robbers weren't stupid. They already had the money they'd wanted, they were just messing with the cops now.

And then the gunshots began inside the bank. My heart jumped; I heard them each go off, one, two, three, four… and when it got to five, I felt an indescribable pain rip through my chest. I couldn't breathe, my eyes went cloudy and I dropped to my knees on the pavement. I heard a few people around me, shaking me asking what had happened. I hadn't been hit. But I know who had been, and the minute my chest found the air I screamed before my shaking body collapsed on the pavement.

"MATTIE!"

My sister was gone.

-

**Present, Cora**

Things have been difficult in the two years since Mattie died. My entire family has been taken from me, my whole world. And I know that if I had been a little more persistent, that maybe I could have kept Mattie from going to work that day. I should have tried.

I went for regular swims in our moonpool to keep myself going. Every time I was there, I felt like I was with my whole family again. It was a place we had been together so many times before, that I could almost sense them through memories.

I hoisted myself up on a rock near the side of the moonpool by the waterfall and sighed, leaning back on my arms and warming myself in the sun. I had hoped that I had done the last of my hiding for the day; I already had a close call when I heard some hikers stumbling through the woods on the side of the moonpool opposite from the waterfall. I had sunken down under a fallen tree and waited until they passed, thankful that my dark hair and light brown skin helped me camouflage myself in the woodsy area. But it was getting late for hikers now, and I would be able to hear them coming a while before they saw me – Let's say that I just have good ears. I have not experimented with my abilities at all since Mattie's funeral; for a long while afterwards, I lost my visions all together. I had no desire to see anything, I just wanted to block everything out.

Sighing a little, a curled up on the rock on my side and let my eyes close sadly. I'm lonely, I cannot deny it. It is difficult to keep friends when I can never let myself go out, chancing getting wet. The one person who knew that same problem had been taken away from me. I tried to push the loneliness away; I knew that this life would be lonely, and since Mattie passed I have had to accept a few things that hurt badly, deep in my heart.

I have no family left. I can't keep friends. Boys never look in my direction, but even if they did I would never be able to date. No one could ever love, let alone _like_ me this way. I would never be able to have a family; something that I have wanted ever since I was a little girl.

Closing my eyes tighter I curled up a bit more and fought back tears. This was the way that things were now, and would stay.

I was also more skillful with my visions lately. Now that Mattie was gone, I saw only visions of the three mermaids that had once been strangers, but who I now feel a strange connection to. It took a long time for the visions to become clear, but when I closed my eyes now I could see their faces, hear their voices. I could feel what they felt, and sometimes see what they saw. It was a very strange and very rewarding experience. I was able to see them going through the same trials and tribulations my sister and I had when we first became mermaids, watched them help one another through difficult times, wishing I could offer them advice from my own experience. I found myself keeping a watchful eye over each of them, as I had with Mattie.

There were problems though, lately. I had watched a few years ago as a woman, a scientist, threatened to expose the girls, but envisioned a resolution and saw that the girls had managed to throw her off their "tails" so to speak. I had watched when a fourth girl, a redhead became a mermaid and had been able to see in the fourth girl's mind that she had wanted to eliminate the other three girls, and from what I had seen of her abilities, she may have been able to – she had wanted to be the only mermaid (too bad she didn't know about _me_…). When this girl was around I had had such an overwhelming desire to protect the others from her that I almost couldn't stand it. But, I had had a vision of the redhead losing her powers and leaving town, and decided to let it go. However… these days I had been getting strong, vivid images through the girls' minds of this woman scientist again. She was back in the area it seemed, set up in a huge fancy laboratory on the water.

The vibes I was getting from this woman through my visions were frightening. When I saw her, my insides felt icy and could feel that her intentions were bad – very bad. The name I heard inside the girls' heads were all the same, and so I figured out that this woman, this scientist was Dr. Denman.

What troubled me the most, though, was that this time I was not able to see visions of a resolution as I had in the past. I wasn't able to see Denman leaving the area, I wasn't able to see what she wanted with the girls or what she would TRY to do to the girls. I could see no happy ending for the three girls. But, I could feel that Denman was back, and with a scornful vengeance.

I couldn't sit around and do nothing while people I have so much in common face this threat of a woman and her team of goons again. I did not know these girls and they had no idea I existed, but the four of us were part of a phenomena. It did not matter to me that they hadn't a clue who or what I was, what mattered to me what that the phenomena continued; that they remained unexposed, that nobody ripped them apart – In this life, you need someone else, a realization that hurt when I realized I didn't. But, I had to do something.

Before Mattie died she had asked me a lot about the visions of the three girls; what their names were, what they were like, where did they come from. I hadn't been able to answer any of those questions before she was killed, but the more visions I had the clearer the answers became. When she was alive, she spoke fondly about maybe trying to find these girls someday. I still did not know what their names were, but I think I had their personalities understood fairly well and when I became able to hear their voices, I discovered Australian accents – they were in Australia!

However, after that realization I still had no idea where in Australia. I had to wait several weeks until I heard them talking about a small café that they met frequently at; The Juicenet, it was called. Going on a whim and hoping it wasn't a chain-café, I crossed my fingers and consulted the internet. To my absolute astonishment, I found that there was only one Juicenet café; a small, independently owns smoothie bar by the beach, located in the Gold Coast of Australia.

My heart thudded in my chest. I had a location now; now I had no excuse. Now that I'm 20 years-old, I'm about halfway done with my 4 years at college and transferring can be a pain, but it will be a small price to pay. I set to work finding a school with a good biology program, setting up a small condo to live in, and finding potential places in the area where I could apply for a job. It took a little over month for me to plan everything, and that was with me working any time of the day that I was not working or attending class. It was time.

As I stretched out now across the rock basking in the last of the sun before it went down behind the trees, I tried to mentally prepare myself for what I was about to do. I had taken care of everything that I needed to before my departure in the morning. I held onto the warm rock beneath me and felt a single tear drop onto it. This was my home, and I was leaving it. But, there is nothing left for me here, and I know that. I know that there are others like me out there, and that there is something, and someone very dangerous in their future.

I thought of Mattie as I pushed myself up off of the rock and let my body sink back down into the water, my silvery tail flashing in the last of the sunlight. This was what she would have wanted to do.

**A/n**: Quite long! Yikes! Hehe, the next chapters will be much shorter than this, but it depends on how much you want to read. Do you guys like long chapters, or would you prefer shorter ones? Let me know, reviews are welcome and very much appreciated!

In the next chapter, we finally see the H2O girls! :] Take care, be well everyone!


	3. First Day

_**Lewis**_

Ughhh. I'm going to be late. The very first day of the semester, and I'm going to be late. Excellent job, McCartney.

I slipped my books off the kitchen counter and into my bag, slung it over my shoulder and stuffing my keys into my pocket, ran out of the house.

It's only a quarter kilometer walk to campus which I made in record time. I looked down at my watch: It is only 10:05, class is supposed to start at 10:10. Maybe I won't be late after all! I made my way to the science building and hurried to the biology wing. For the past two years I have practically lived in every room in these hallways, and was on my way to a lecture hall.

Hall 312, first class of the semester: Advanced Cellular Biology.

I stumbled down the steps and took an open spot a few rows from the front, which was all that was left but I didn't mind too much; the professor isn't even here yet, I don't know why I thought I had to rush. Professors are never on time…

The room was pretty full and for a minute I thought I had been the last one in. I looked down at my watch again, and it was almost 10:15. I heard the metal door at the top of the stairs open and close and figured it was our professor, and turned for a second to face the sound on the opposite end of the room. Instead of a professor, I saw a tall girl clutching her books looking a little lost.

'_Well_,' I thought, '_At least I wasn't the __last__ one in…_' I felt my mouth turn into a lopsided smile and I returned my attention to the empty front of the room. No sooner had I done that, did I hear the metal door burst open boldly and I heard loud footsteps echoing off the linoleum stairs, paired with the unmistakable first-day-professor voice.

"Good morning, everyone!"

I heard some groans from my peers – clearly not morning-people. Myself, well, I didn't mind the mornings, and usually had no trouble getting up on time. However, this morning was an exception. Last night was a full moon and I'd had to prevent a few mermaid-crises, meaning I hadn't been able to get to sleep when I had wanted to. But, I couldn't complain too much. The full moon problems were few and far between these days, and that had been the first "moon-call" I had gotten so far this year. It just happened to be very poorly _timed_.

I yawned and began to listen to the mandatory first-day speech that all professors gave. Having been through 4 semesters of this, this being my 5th, I was quite used to it and let my head rest on my hand and let my mind wander.

*

A few minutes before class was due to end, I felt a strange sensation; the feeling you get when you're being watched. I lifted my head up from my hand and wrinkled my eyebrows together, confused. I carefully looked to my right. The guy at my side was slouched over the desk, completely conked out asleep; I doubted he was looking at much of _anything_. I looked to my left and saw a very bored redhead tapping her pen at the edge of the desk and staring off into space, much like I had been a few moments ago.

However, then something pulled my eyes up a little higher. I no longer felt like somebody was staring at me, but sitting two rows behind me and a few seats down was the girl I had seen come in late at the start of class. She didn't look lost anymore, though; her face was focused and she was busily taking notes. I watched her tuck almost black hair behind her ear, but then I saw her hand freeze and saw her eyes begin to lift slightly; she looked incredibly nervous. She must have felt me staring at her, and I immediately snapped my attention back to the front before her eyes could meet my face.

'_No need to be a creeper on the first day of class, Lewis…'_ I thought and shook my head a little, snapping myself out of it.

In that exact instant, our professor dismissed us and I heard the shuffle of books, papers and bags fill the auditorium. I quickly picked up my own bag from the floor and slung it back over my shoulder in record time before looking down at my watch. It was 11:10am now; I'm meeting up with Emma, Cleo and Rikki in 20 minutes just to make sure everything is all right post full-moon madness.

I stood up and turned to head up the stairs for the door, letting my eyes casually scan the scuttle of students. The girl from behind me was long gone.

-


	4. First Encounter

When Lewis entered the Juicenet Café, Emma, Cleo and Rikki were already there, Zane having showed up as well and was sitting alongside Rikki. Lewis hurried over to the table and slid into the booth with his friends.

"Hey, guys…" He said tiredly, letting his bag drop to the floor at his side.

"Hey, Lewis." He received a few mumbled, grumpy responses. He smirked a little and looked at the three girls.

"Well, how are you feeling this morning after last night's almost-catastrophe?" He chuckled a little and smiled at them, and had three unamused looks shot in his direction.

"_GRIEF_, Lewis, no matter how much of a joke you try to make of it won't make it any less _humiliating_!" Rikki snapped at him, rolling her eyes and staring daggers at him. He frowned a little and looked at Cleo, Emma and Zane for support.

"It wasn't as bad as it could have been, Rikki," Emma started.

"Yeah," Cleo chimed in, "Besides, we aren't new to this full-moon thing anymore. We've gotten really good at handling ourselves, but we're not _perfect_…"

Zane looked at Lewis and lift an eyebrow, sitting up a little straighter. After being with Rikki for so long, it was second-nature for him to be exposed to situations that were out of the ordinary. However, it didn't make him worry for his girlfriend and friends any less. They were one of a kind, and if they were to be exposed…it would be the end of the three girls. This was a fate he had come close to once a few years ago, and didn't want to come close to again.

"What exactly happened last night?" He questioned. Lewis exchanged a quick glance with Emma, who appeared embarrassed and let her eyes slip away and crossed her arms. Cleo had her head resting on her hand, looking bothered but clearly not in the mood to talk about last night's events. Well, then, it was up to Lewis.

"Well, Emma is right. It wasn't as bad as it might have been… But, last night the girls got moonstruck and almost killed me for trying to stop them from going to Mako." Lewis's voice was tired, but he tried not to sound frustrated. Zane raised his eyebrows .

"What's the big deal about going to Mako?" Zane asked.

"Well, normally it would be okay, since they've learned to control their powers pretty well and don't drum up hurricanes anymore. But, now it's a big deal – it's a huge deal, because Denman is back in town, and she's set up more underwater cameras all over the place near Mako Island. If they were to get near it, they'd be caught on film…again. And we know what happened _last_ time…" Lewis trailed off, a serious look on his face. Even though he and Cleo had not been dating for few years now, he remained close friends with the mermaids. He felt like they were an extension of his family, and no matter how much he nagged them and bothered them for test samples of their hair and fingernails, they were not merely a science experiment to him – they were his best friends.

Zane's face blanked and he turned and looked at his girlfriend.

"You _what_?!"

"Zane, don't you dare start too!" Rikki snapped back at him, cutting her blue eyes coldly at him.

"Yes ma'am…" He muttered, clearly put in his place and settled back slightly in the booth. Cleo rolled her eyes a little and smiled.

"Rikki's only getting so defensive because it was her fault…" She giggled a little which made Emma start to laugh and hit Cleo's leg under the table to get her to stop.

"Okay, okay. It might have been my fault--" Rikki started but was interrupted.

"It was _definitely_ your fault!" Cleo was laughing harder now, a genuine harmless smile plastered on her face as she teased her friend.

"—OKAY. It was my fault. Dad thought he heard someone outside and opened the door." Rikki sighed, rolling her eyes and frowned. Emma smiled hopefully at her across the table.

"It's all right, Rikki, it wasn't anything you could have predicted. It's not like that's something any of us could have predicted."

"Emma is exactly right," said Lewis, "But now that Denman is back and she's got cameras set up, you guys are going to have to be really careful around Mako."

The girls nodded in agreement and were silent for a moment. The previous night had been a close call, but it was nothing that they couldn't handle… right?

-

Cleo, Rikki, Emma and Lewis had not been the only ones awake and in turmoil the previous night.

Cora fiddled with her keys, still trying to get the hang of the new lock on the new door of her new home in Australia. Once inside the small condo, she dropped her shoulder bag on a chair in the kitchen and made a beeline down the small steps to the living room, flopping down on the couch and closed her eyes, bringing her hands to her forehead.

It had been a rough, interesting day for Cora to say the least. Her head was buzzing uncomfortably. She had been in the gold coast for a few weeks now, and upon her arrival her visions had been filled with more and more tense emotions. However, the images themselves had gotten fuzzier and fuzzier. She couldn't see the result of any action the girls did, only the decisions they were going to make. She hoped this wouldn't last forever; last night had been terrifying.

_**Flashback, Last night**_

Cora had been woken up in the middle of the night with a vision of the three Australian mermaids getting moonstruck and planning to swim to an island that she had seen many times in her visions. However, Cora was able to see strange underwater cameras in the area around this island and was terror stricken – somebody was trying to catch them on film. She sat up straight in bed with her arms thrown out in front of her instinctively and was met with a wide open bedroom window. Cora knew she had closed it before she'd gone to bed, but figured that it must have been the wind that had thrown it open again… or was it?

The vision had had no ending, like the others. She wasn't able to see if the girls were on their way or not, if they would be caught, if they would be fine. She was able to see the dark-haired mermaid making a phone call right before the other two busted her window open and let the moon hit her, but Cora had no idea who she had called or how that person could help. Nevertheless she had to do something, even if she wasn't sure what. In the middle of the night she had quickly dressed, and hurried down towards the beach where she had seen the girls running into in her visions, hiding carefully in the darkness of the trees.

After only waiting a few minutes she saw three figures appear on the beach, walking very slowly down the sandy slope to the water. Cora panicked; she had been able to see what these girls were capable of, power-wise and knew that they could be dangerous, especially Rikki, and knew that surprising moonstruck mermaids would do nothing but start a whole world of trouble. What could she do!?

She had gotten a harsh buzzing in her head and squeezed her eyes tightly shut, getting a little dizzy and feeling herself stumble slightly reaching out to steady herself on the tree she was hiding behind. She saw no visions, only blindingly bright flashes of color. The buzzing in Cora's head got faster and louder until it peaked and she let her eyes fly open again. She saw the three figures stumble backwards away from the water and fall onto their bottoms.

'_What just happened?_' Cora wondered, trying to justify how the gentle breeze that barely moved her hair could have knocked the girls down. Could it have? She did not think so… Did _she_ do it? She shook her head trying to shake herself out of it; no, no that wasn't possible. _Was_ it? She was just grateful that they were distracted for the moment. As if on cue, she saw a fourth person, a young man run onto the beach, waving his arms wildly and calling for them. Cora could hear him over the crash of the waves and the slight breeze and recognized his voice, and let her head perk up a bit. This was definitely the voice of the blonde guy she had seen in her visions, through the mermaids' eyes; the one who had helped them so many times before.

She sighed in relief, but only for a moment. As soon as he was close enough to them, the moonstruck dark haired girl pulled her hand in front of her and clenched her fist, sending huge stream of water from the ocean flying right into the young man, knocking him down. The blonde next to her lift her hand next and sent a bolt of lightning crash down, missing him only by a few feet and causing him to jump expertly out of the way. How many times had he had to do _this_, Cora wondered. She looked at the girls and knew that they meant him no real harm; they were laughing like little girls and smiling from where they sat on the ground When she stopped he was quickly trying to brush the wet sand out of his face and hair.

"Guys, come on…" He muttered, picking himself up. The third blond giggled and raised her hand and clenched her fingers, and in that instant it began to snow – only on the young man. The girls laughed hysterically and Cora couldn't help but stifle a giggle as well, "Very funny, Emma."

Cora's head picked up again; she had her first name. The blonde with the freezing powers was Emma! She smiled and for some reason felt a kind of relief.

"Sorry, Lewis, we just wanted to go for a swim!" Said the brown-haired girl. Cora had another name, now.

"I know, Cleo. But you all know that you can't. I know you're moonstruck, but I know that you can control yourselves now. If you go out there, Denman _will_ see you, and she _will_ catch you. We can't do this again."

"What if we're just really, really careful…?" Piped up Emma, a hopeful smile on her face. Cora smirked and shook her head from her hiding spot; the things the moon did to mermaids she knew all too well. She knew that Emma was usually the most responsible, but the moon sent her inhibitions out the window.

"No, not even if you're really really careful. Come on, let's get you guys home," He waved his arm, telling them to get up. They did, reluctantly. "Hey, since I'm wet and now I've been SNOWED on, do you guys mind helping me dry off before I go back to bed…?"

Cleo and the third blonde exchanged a devilish smirk and nodded at each other. At the same time, they lifted their hands and clenched them and Lewis was being steam and wind-blown dry rather wildly. By the time they let their hands drop, Lewis was dry, but his blonde hair was puffy from the blonde's steam and sticking up in a hundred directions, thanks to Cleo's wind. He reached up and touched it and frowned a little.

"…Gee thanks, guys."

"Anytime, Lewis." The third blonde smirked and they all took a few steps away to leave the beach. They had taken a few steps and Cora watched the unnamed blonde devilishly clench he hand behind her back and another bolt of lightning struck the sand several feet in front of Lewis again.

"_RIKKI_!" He groaned.

"What? It slipped." She grinned and the girls giggled, and they all left the beach. With a sigh of relief, Cora left her hiding spot and head back to her house as well.

--

_**Present**_

It had been quite a night indeed.

Cora rubbed her temples a little and lift her head, staring out the window. She pushed her hands back over her head, smoothing her dark hair back. To her shock this morning, she had arrived at her first class to find Lewis sitting just two rows ahead of her. She could not help but stare in quiet surprise; she figured she would see each of them again soon after that morning on the beach, but she didn't expect it to be _that_ soon.

However something strange had happened. He had turned and looked right at her. Cora had put her head back down by then but she could feel him watching her for quite a few moments.

'_Oh no…_' She had thought. Had she screwed up already? Did he recognize her? Had he seen her that morning on the beach where she was hiding and thought she was some kind of danger? Her body had frozen up in class, but she couldn't look back at him. Thankfully, he had turned away and Cora had sighed a small, nervous sigh of relief.

Maybe she hadn't screwed up after all? Cora hoped not more than anything. She tucked her hands into her light blue zip-up sweatshirt and turned her head slightly, looking at herself in the mirror across the room. She sighed sadly and looked away from her reflection and slowly curled up on her side on the couch. Her eyes were heavy from the lack of sleep and the buzzing in her head was making her dizzy. Clinging on to a pillow, Cora drifted off into a much needed nap thoroughly hoping that no frightening visions would wake her up this time

-

**A/n:** Hope you all are well! Reviews are welcome, I love to hear what you think - it always inspires me to write more. Take care, guys!


	5. Hello, Dr Denman

**A/N**: Hello all, I hope everyone is well! Just a quick note to you guys: Thank you to everyone for reading this! I have noticed the hit numbers going up and up and I can't tell you how happy that makes me! The _storyline picks up quite a bit from this chapter on out_, no more introductions (yay! Haha!). I hope that those of you who are reading and enjoying the story will continue to read and enjoy. My only wish is that if you enjoy the story, drop a review and let me know it! My stories are pre-written, but I still have to be re-assured that people want to read them – otherwise, they sit in my wordfiles or they get posted elsewhere, haha. Be well, everybody! Here is chapter 5!

**-**

Emma had an hour of free time between classes on Monday afternoons, and after a few weeks of the semester had fallen into a routine, as she tended to do. After her last class of the morning, Shakespearean Literature 336, she slung her light pink bag over her shoulder and headed off campus to a nearby café.

The café was only a block away and Emma was able to reach it in a few minutes, enjoying the outdoors after being stuck in a lecture for almost two hours. She smiled brightly at the cashier as she passed by, heading for the refrigerated section. As usual, she wrinkled her nose a little as she bypassed the junk food—sodas and microwave meals – and stood for a while in front of the glass door of the refrigerator peering at the items that were more up her alley. She knit her eyebrows together and tucked her straight blonde hair neatly behind her ear as she scanned the shelves, smiling when she found just what she wanted. Quickly sliding the door open, she grabbed a container of fruit salad, some yogurt and grabbed a bottle of water – by the cap, of course, to avoid the condensation on the plastic bottle. As she stood and turned to head towards the cash register, she found someone blocking her path.

"Hello, Emma. Glad to see someone your age eating so responsibly."

Emma hesitated but made sure to show no signs fear and gave the intruder a polite smile.

"Thank you, Dr. Denman, that's quite nice of you." Emma then stepped to the side and walked around the woman, heading for the counter to pay. She smiled kindly at the teenage cashier and handed him the money, and turned to head towards the exit.

"Emma, wait."

Emma sighed and stopped walking. What did Denman want _now_? She turned around to face the blonde scientist, who had a smile glued onto her face.

"Yes, Dr. Denman?"

"Emma, you can call me Linda! I…I wanted to offer you a job – an internship, really. I know you're at that point in your college career and thought that perhaps I could help out," Linda's face was bright and pretty – such a lie when you considered the greedy woman that she was inside, thought Emma.

"Thanks for that, really. But, I'm an English major, I've already got something set up at my old high school."

"Oh. Well, that's too bad. I know you're a bright young lady; I could use such an addition on my team. If you reconsider, give me a call okay?"

"Sure, thanks. Well, gotta go…" Emma gave Linda Denman a weak smile and left the store, not noticing the dark haired girl sitting quietly on the sofa chair in the corner of the café with her tea who had watched the exchange with Denman very, very carefully.

*

_**Later that week - Cora**_

I settled into my seat in my Advanced Cellular Biology seminar and yawned. I started to flip through my notebook, trying to find the last page I had written on. School only started three weeks ago, and already my notebook was half full of my neatly written, very detailed notes. Unlike a lot of the others in my class, as far as I could see, I really enjoyed it. We had had our first test about a week ago, and the girl who sits to my left had asked to borrow my notes. I really had no problem with it; if I can help, then I want to. I guess it's okay that the first impression I've made on this new country I live in is that I'm a science nerd. Being a nerd in college is considerably different thing than being a nerd in high school – not great, but lots better. I guess I take after Mattie; I'm eager to learn about _anything_ that might help me understand the supernatural changes that my body is going through, even if the same rules don't exactly apply.

"'Morning, Cora!"

I glanced briefly to my left and saw my field-work partner slip into the empty seat next to me and smiled quickly.

"'Morning, Lewis."

I had gotten quite a surprise on the second day of class when our professor split the class into fifty pairs of two by using the dreaded counting-method; I was not surprised to see that this was hated in Australia as much as it was in America. Having arrived early that day, I had taken a seat in the front corner and had been "1" when the professor made us start to count off. Because there was a nice even 100 students in the class, I made myself busy re-reading my notes from the previous class as the other students counted off. I didn't pay much attention to who the other "1" was, and figured that I would be easy to find when we were told to break off into our groups.

When the counting was finally done, Professor Kristo told us simply to "move." I stayed in my seat and heard all the movement of people clumsily making their ways through the rows of seats, up and down the stairs trying to find their partners and cussing under their breath at Kristo's "crackpot high-school teaching methods." Normally I would agree; people all already knew each other by this point and could probably pick their own partners, but I couldn't complain – I didn't know anybody.

At that moment I wished that I were able to have visions of my _own_ future and not just Emma, Cleo and Rikki's, because even _I _couldn't have predicted what came next.

"Hello," came a quiet voice from in front of me. I looked up and felt myself freeze up a little when I saw that standing in front of me was Lewis – the friend of the three mermaids. The odds were very weird but I shook my head a little to snap myself out of it and smiled a little at him and say hello.

Over the next several classes, I was overjoyed to learn that Lewis is just as much of a science nerd as I am. I should have known – as the only other person who knew about the existence of mermaids, he had to have at least been _curious_ about science; of course, he doesn't know what I know or what I am. But, he is really very nice to me, and the only person I've really talked to since I moved to the Gold Coast.

At three weeks of working together we are both quite comfortable with one another at this point, but after witnessing Emma being approached by Dr. Denman I knew that I had to figure out a way to let them know who I was. After finally being able to see Denman for myself in person, I had gotten a very strong, tight pain in my stomach – the woman was trouble, and I could feel it. The offer she had made Emma was a trap, I had seen it. Thankfully, though, I didn't even need a vision to tell me that Emma would decline.

This told me that time was running short. I needed to be very careful; the three girls are very close with one another and would do anything to keep their secret safe. There had to be a way that I could let them know who I was, and what I had seen – short of blurting it out to people who were technically, complete strangers. I needed to think, and fast.

*****

**A few days later – Cora**

It was early - very early, but I can't sleep anymore. I've been wracking my brain for days trying to come up with the gentlest way to expose myself to the girls, and believe me, in our situation this is the kind of thing that needs to be done gently.

I needed to swim badly; I hadn't since I moved, even though I see my tail every night when I wash. Thankfully, I think I have found the perfect place – a small, untraveled path a few miles outside of town that leads down to the beach with a nice bunch of boulders at the water's edge that could keep me hidden. The area is secluded and I have visited it a few times now just to be sure it is safe, and each time I have found myself completely alone.

So, I packed up several huge, fluffy towels and a small handheld hair dryer that I decided to bring just in case I needed to make a really quick change, tossed them in my shoulder bag that I used for school and headed out.

-

I had forgotten how much being in the water makes me feel better. While it helped before Mattie and I became mermaids, now that I am one, water has a kind of healing quality. The minute I had sunken into the waves and let my head get submerged, I felt the headache from my lack of sleep melt away and sighed in relief.

I swam for a while and let my body get more and more relaxed. After an hour or so, I hoisted myself up on one of the boulders and spread out lazily letting my silvery tail shine in the hint of light that came from the crescent moon, which was low in the sky soon to be replaced by the sun. It just felt so nice, so natural. I was so at ease and was overcome with such a safe feeling that I let my eyes close and drifted off into a very light sleep.

I didn't hear the person trodding down the same path I had just travelled until it was too late.

*


	6. Explanations

**A/N:** I'll try to be brief, then onto chapter 6! Thanks for all the responses, everyone! I would have put this up sooner, but was away from my laptop for a few days (where all the files are, haha).

**Starofcalamity** – always super kind! Thanks for your response, I'm so glad you enjoy the story!

**Cfxcin02** – wow! Thank you so much, your review brought such a huge, stupid smile to my face and I actually blushed! LOL. I will do my absolute best to keep things feeling real and to not let you down (but if I start to, feel free to kick my butt for it, and I'll fix it, 'kay? Lol). Thank you for responding to my question as well; The chapters will be significantly longer from this point on, overall, thank you for your feedback it certainly helped a lot!

**Paradox Tremors** – Wow, what nice generous responses! Thanks a bunch, I'm glad that this story has caught your eye and I'm happy that you like it! I really apologize about the shortness of chapter 3, and I promise, I've taken everyone's feedback quite seriously and the rest of the chapters will be longer. One thing, though! Chapter 3 is written in Lewis's P.O.V., not Cora's. Quick explanation, for everyone:

I'm sure I haven't made this completely clear, which I'm very sorry for – but! When I start a section of the story with a character's name in _**bolded italics**_, - like that, that means that that particular section of the story is written from that character's point of view. For example, this chapter will start off from Cora's P.O.V. If there is no name mentioned, then it's just 3rd person P.O.V, or "no one's" point of view. I'm sorry I didn't explain this at the beginning; I hope it wasn't too confusing without this explanation!

Again, everyone, thank you so much for reading! Remember, I will always, always, always respond to any questions and/or comments you have for me, don't be shy! I hope to reach at least 15 total reviews for the whole story before I post the next chapter, 'sound fair to you all? Let's see if I can do it, haha! Enjoy, everybody!

*

_**Cora**_

The sound of snapping twigs broke me out of my sleep abruptly. I froze and clenched my eyes shut, concentrating – maybe it was just an animal? I focused as hard as I could, and felt my heart thud almost out of my chest. I could heard definite footsteps; human footsteps.

"Shit, Cora, stupid, stupid, stupid…" I muttered, quickly pushing my body up on the rocks. I hadn't been asleep too long and was still soaking wet – tail and all. My hair was wet and had taken on the small inconsistent natural waves and were now blocking me from seeing anything. I clumsily used my arm to shove my hair back and sat up a little higher on the rock and quickly reached to the other side of the small rock-shelf that I had made myself comfortable on and started groping around where I had set my bag cradled between two rocks. It wasn't there.

Maybe it was further to the side than I remembered? Quickly I started groping around the rocks to the left and to the right of the spot and felt nothing. I could hear the footsteps and breaking twigs getting closer and closer now and could see the bright white of a person's shirt coming through the still dark path that was shrouded in trees. Desperately I pushed myself up on my arms a little higher looked down – my bag had fallen down onto the sand of the beach; a 15 foot drop at least. There was no way I could get down there in time to dry off. My only other option was to try to get 15 feet down in the other direction back into the water. I took a deep breath and turned a little, ready to make my way down the jagged, slippery rocks as fast as possible. I don't know if it is even _possible_ to break my tail like a leg or an arm, but if it is then this is the perfect friggin' opportunity to find out.

I quickly scooted myself to the edge of the rock I had been laying on and made to slip down to the next one, using my tail for balance. I can do this, I can make it down there—

"Cora…? Cora, is that _you_?"

I froze. Never mind, I guess the whole 'I can do this' thing isn't happening after all. But, I knew that voice…but that didn't make me any less nervous. I stopped moving and turned my head back to face him, smiling awkwardly.

"Hey, Lewis…"

"Cora! I knew I recognized that bag there on the sand. How did you find my fishing spot? I've never seen another person here in years! What brings you here so early?" He was smiling happily despite how early it was, and walked right up to the edge of the rock wall with his fishing gear to look up at me; the rock wall that was the only thing concealing my tail, at this point. I gave him a lopsided smile and looked down at him.

"It's a long story. But I guess I'm here so early because I couldn't sleep." I replied quietly. The sun was coming up a little bit now and the beach was beginning to glow a little.

"Ah, that's okay. I don't mind sharing my secret spot – as long as you don't tell anyone else!" He laughed a little and to my shock, started climbing up the rocks. He wasn't kidding when he said I was in his fishing spot, was he? Even though I knew he knew about mermaids, he didn't know that _I was one_, and I instinctively shrunk away as he got closer.

"Ahh… Lewis…?"

"You should be careful up here, Cora, these rocks can do some real damage if you're not!" He was still climbing towards me, only a few feet away now. When I had said I had to think of a way to expose myself fast, I didn't mean _that_ fast. Lewis was climbing over the rocks and it was clear to me that he had done this before, but where he was about to put his foot was incredibly slippery. My eyes grew wide as I watched him put his foot down and immediately begin to lose his footing. Without even thinking about what I was doing, my left hand flew out in front of me with my palm facing out and my fingers clenched. My jaw dropped open a little and I was once again frozen in shock: Lewis was no longer falling, but was instead suspended in mid-fall, his body completely horizontal in the air. His blue eyes were bugged out and he just looked at me, his arms waving around a little trying to feel himself back on solid ground again. I quickly closed my mouth and carefully raised my arm again, slowly bringing it back to my side and with it, setting Lewis back on a sturdy rock. I had definitely done that this time, no doubt about it, no blaming it on freak gusts of wind. That was me.

"Not the most _graceful_ way to tell a secret, there, Cora…" I muttered to myself and slumped down against the rock, letting my eyes close and sighed. It was quiet for a minute and I heard Lewis's tackle box jangling around a little and for a second I thought he might be running for his life, but then I realized that the sound was getting closer to me, not further away.

"Cora…? Did you just do that?" Lewis was right behind me now and his voice was quiet, but calm. I smiled a little, but was still embarrassed at my own foolishness.

"It only seems to work if I'm scared," I chuckled once, very quietly and looked down at the rocks. Bracing myself with a sigh, I turned to face him and hoisted myself up higher, laying my tail out across the peak of the wall in plain sight, "Lewis… I have to talk to you."

I told him everything.

*

_**The next day – Cleo**_

_RIIIIIIIING!_

Who on EARTH is calling me this early on a Sunday?! I groped around at my bedside table quickly trying to find my cell phone before the noise woke Emma. Thankfully, the room in our apartment that I shared with Rikki was empty aside from me – she had spent the night at her dad's place again – but Emma was a pretty light sleeper and was just across the hall...

"Phone, phone phone…." I grabbed around for it and finally found it and yanked it into the bed under the covers with me before I answered it, "Who…? And what? And _WHY_?" I moaned into the phone. I was not a morning person; neither was Rikki. That's why Emma Early-Bird Gilbert got her own room.

"Cleo! It's Lewis—"

I should have known. I should be used to his calls at all hours of the day and night by now, but… it's _SUNDAY_!

"Hi, Lewis. What's going on, everything all right?"

"Yeah, everything is great; but look, I have someone I think you guys should meet."

"Really? Who's that?" I asked, I was curious now. Lewis was quiet on the other line for a second.

"Cora."

I smirked and raised an eyebrow.

"Field-work-partner Cora? Ohhh, _Cora_." I laughed a little. Lewis and I had been best friends for years, and we had even dated for one of those years; I had earned the right to tease him about girls… and about everything else.

"Come on, Cleo, not now…" He groaned on the other end of the line.

"_Tell_ me about 'not now,' you're the one who called me at… what time is it?" I had just realized that I didn't know.

"Almost 11 in the morning."

"There, I rest my case!" I smiled triumphantly, and Emma poked her head into the room; she would have been up for hours by now, I had nothing to worry about after all.

"Who is it?" She mouthed.

"It's Lewis, he wants to introduce us to somebody today. Is that okay?"

"Sure. I'll call Rikki and tell her to come back; tell him he can come over in a few hours, all right?" Emma smiled and just like that, she was gone again.

"Lewis? Emma says you can bring her over in a few hours, we'll all be here then." I said, sitting up in bed now and pushing off the covers. I may as well stay awake at this point.

"Okay, great. See you in a bit!" He had hung up before I could even say goodbye, so I shrugged, yawned, stretched and got out of bed. I turned and made my bed and made Rikki's as well, and went to find some clothes.

*

"So, who's this person Lewis is bringing over?" Rikki asked, sliding onto a barstool at the counter between our kitchen and dining room.

"His field-work partner from one of his biology courses," I replied, putting the last of the clean dishes away. I watched Rikki raise a pale blonde eyebrow and pick at her fingernails, uninterested as ever.

"And… why do we need to meet his field-work partner?" She asked. I smiled.

"Because Lewis won't stop talking—" I started, but Emma cut me off, and it was probably a good idea. I teased, but Rikki teased even more… and in public.

"Because," Emma started, "He's told us before that she's from America, and she doesn't really know anybody. He probably wants her to have some girl friends."

"Ah, gotcha." Satisfied with the answer, Rikki finished picking her nails and set her hands down on the table just as a knock came on the door.

"I'll get it!" Emma sprang up and head for the door, quickly pulling it open, "Hello, come in, both of you!" I heard her say. After a few seconds, Lewis came into view followed timidly by a tall, kind of exotic-looking girl. I blinked a little, confused – _this_ is the science nerd that Lewis won't stop talking about? I was expecting some…well, a pale, short nerdy red-head with glasses – no offense to Lewis or anything, it was just the image I had in my head. This girl seemed a little… prettier than most "science nerds" I've seen. Besides, in my defense Lewis had never exactly explained what she _looked_ like. He had said that she was from California, but this girl looks… Indian? Brazilian, maybe? I can't place it. Dark hair, dark eyes, and… unfair! Her skin is the exact color I wish I could tan to. Ugh. And you found her in a _science class_, Lewis?

"Hey, guys? This is Cora. Cora, this is Emma, Rikki and Cleo… oh, right…you knew that…" He muttered the second part, but I still heard him – that's weird, I wonder what that was all about? The girl smiled and looked at the three of us.

"Hello, it's nice to finally meet you all." She said quietly.

"It's nice to meet you too, Cora. So, how do you like Australia so far?" Emma asked, sitting Lewis and Cora down at our kitchen table.

"It's beautiful from what I've seen… But I've spent most of my time in class or at work so far." Cora's voice is quiet, and I don't hear the California accent I had been expecting to. She seems nice enough, so far so good…

"Yeah, you look kinda familiar," Rikki sat up higher on the stool and leaned forward over the counter to speak to her, "Are you one of the hostesses at the Sheppard's Inn?"

"Oh! Yeah, that's me. I also work in the administrative office at school."

"Wow, two jobs?" I questioned. I thought holding _one_ down was a struggle, "Well, hopefully you'll get to see more of the area soon, the break from school is coming up in a few weeks."

"Hopefully, yes." She sounded so shy! Then again, I might too if I were in a brand new country and didn't know anybody. It was quiet for a second, and Lewis spoke up quickly.

"Cora thinks that she may be able to help you guys with Dr. Denman."

Bam. The whole room was silent. I froze. Emma froze. Rikki even froze, and when I looked at Cora she just appeared uncomfortable. Everyone stared hard at Lewis. He wouldn't have told somebody our secret after all these years… would he?

"What do you mean, Lewis?" Emma questioned. I could tell she was trying to sound like she had no idea what he was talking about, but Lewis looked as calm as ever.

"It's okay, guys… She knows."

"What do you _MEAN_, 'she knows'?!" Rikki pushed herself off of her stool and Lewis took an instinctive step back. I decided to step in fast before she fried him.

"Lewis? What exactly have you told her…?"

"I didn't have to tell her anything. She already knew," I saw Lewis glance at Cora, whose face was mortified, "I think we better show them now." Lewis looked at Emma, who was the closest to the sink, "Emma, can we have a glass of water over here, please?" Emma raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. I knew that look on her face; she was still annoyed, but curious. She grabbed a glass and filled it with water from the sink, and set it on the table in front of Lewis, "Thank you. All right. Cora?"

"That was not what I meant by 'gently', Lewis!" She frowned a little and eyed the glass carefully.

"Sorry. Not gentle, but effective and quick. Look at them, they're tough girls. They can handle it. Go ahead."

Cora sighed, then looked at him and the three of us, and then dipped her fingers into the glass and took them out so fast that we almost didn't see it. I immediately felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up for some reason, and three seconds later we watch Cora wobble a little in the kitchen chair, and my mouth dropped open when I saw it – a dark silvery tail flopped out from underneath the table.

Lewis had brought us another mermaid. And I didn't need to look at Emma or Rikki to know that this felt really, really familiar.


	7. Evidence

A/N: Wow guys! Haha thank you all so much for the nice response, new readers and old! Thank you for helping me meet my review-goal, haha.

Anon – Thank you! : ] **Chocoholic** – glad you're interested! You question is answered in this chapter, enjoy! **New Reader** – Haha, hello! Glad you like it, and welcome to the fic! Haha. **StarofCalamity** – yup, you were right! : D Glad you liked! **Paradox** – Aw, hun no need for me forgiving you! I should have explained that way earlier, I guess I've just been writing for so long that I don't think about that kind of thing : [ not cool of me! Hoping _you'll_ forgive _me_ for being dumb and forgetting to add that explanation? Lol!

I've already gotten most of this story written down already, BUT! I'm thinking about making it a bit more… interactive, in chapters to come. It wouldn't be anything that really changed the plot, but I might pose questions, but mostly it would be me being a creeper for your input and will consider some edits. What would you guys think about that? It may not be much, but just something I'm thinking about. _Be well everyone, reviews are beautiful and so are youuu! Let's see if I can meet my next goal, but this time I won't tell you what it is! – DUN DUN DUNNN._ : D Enjoy, everyone!

*

_**A few hours later**_

Emma, Rikki and Cleo sat in Emma's bedroom later that night before bed. The girls had had quite a bomb dropped on them today, and had a lot to talk about now that their guests were gone.

"This is crazy, I can't believe we're doing this again," said Rikki, rubbing her temples with her fingertips.

"Rikki," started Emma, "we're not _necessarily_ doing anything again. We can't just jump to conclusions."

"I'm not JUMPING, this is fact-based evidence. We've been through this, do I need to remind you guys about Charlotte?! _Cleo_?" Rikki responded, looking at her friends and raising her eyebrows beneath her light bangs.

"Well… That's true, but we've only just met Cora. We don't know that she's going to be another Charlotte, she says she just wants to help us get rid of Denman." Cleo's voice was optimistic as ever, but even she had the ghost of doubt in her head.

"Cleo, think about what this girl told us; really _think_. You too, Emma. Her whole family is mysteriously dead. She can see the future and knows Denman is after us, but _conveniently_ can't see how this is supposed to end. And, not to mention, that telekinetic power she has is way more dangerous than any of ours. She could knock our apartment building down if she felt like it. How can we even be sure that she didn't kill her whole family and skip out of the country?"

"It is a little strange, I'll admit," Emma began, "but she did give us reasons for all of those things, and had a reasonable answer for every single one of our questions. Also she says her power is pretty new to her. She probably can't control it too well, yet. So far it only works if she's startled, probably from the adrenaline."

"…Which Lewis said he was going to try to help her _get_ control of. I'm just saying, there's a lot of suspicious stuff about her story, and I'm not gonna put a whole lot of stock into this Cora girl just because she says she wants to help. We don't know that she really does want to help, right now." Rikki had calmed down a bit, but the fire of conviction was still in her voice and Emma and Cleo could hear it.

"We don't have to let our guard down just yet. But for right now, Rikki, I do agree with you on one thing – we should stick together. We've defended each other and our secret for 3 years, and I don't want to see us fall apart now. We need to be careful. Agreed?" Emma finished tying her dirty blonde hair into a braid and looked at her two friends perched on the end of her bed.

"Agreed," came Rikki's voice first as she slid off of the bed and stood up. Cleo was next, but her voice was a little more hesitant than Rikki's.

"Agreed."

"All right, I think that's fair. For now, guys… do what you can to find out what Cora's intentions are… carefully, okay?" Emma stared at her friends with seriousness in her face that matched her voice.

"Can do," A small smile crept onto Rikki's face and she playfully saluted Emma and head for the door, standing in the doorway.

"Gotcha, Emma." Cleo smiled a little as well and sat up off of the bed, following Rikki back across the hall to the room they shared. She felt her smile falter a little as she climbed into bed and clicked off her bedside lamp. Sure, a few years ago Charlotte had terrorized and almost killed all three of them. But she wasn't sure that she wanted to name Cora as a villain just yet. It was always a possibility, but if it came down to that… three against one was a hell of a fight.

*

_**The following week – Cora**_

I knew that the girls would have some trouble trusting me. That was something these visions have let me know ahead of time. But this was something it was easy for me to draw patience for; for a reason I can't quite explain, I know deep down that I need to keep these girls safe. Letting anything happen to them would be like being a traitor, and this Linda Denman… I had researched her a little, and from my understanding, the reason why she's such a successful scientist is because she stops at nothing to get her research done, and is willing to take "controversial risks". I had read that in an interview she'd had with a local newspaper. I'm guessing that "controversial risks" includes kidnapping three girls and performing all sorts of tests, and exploiting them for money. She is very, very bad news. But, I made a promise to myself not to let the girls down – and I won't.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and checked the time. 2 minutes left until 5 'o clock, and then I was done with classes for the day, then I was off to work at the restaurant. I smiled a little, listening to my English professor wrap up his lecture. But then I felt something strange. A weird tingling sensation was making its way to my legs and arms, and I felt extremely light headed; and then my heart started pounding, my head following close behind.

'_Oh great, please don't pass out… Why am I going to pass out? I ate today, right? I don't remember, I think so… Fight it, fight it, don't pass out, only a few seconds until you can leave…_'

I didn't hear the teacher dismiss us, my ears are ringing a little now, but I can see people getting up and leaving and the noises of movement are muffled, but there. I reach down and grope around for my bag and slide my books into them and try to stand up. My knees lock a little and the act of standing up has made the dizziness a little worse. I can't stay in here… if I pass out in here, the first thing someone will do is throw water on me. Get out, Cora, come on.

I can barely even feel it as I make my way out of the classroom and out into the hall. I feel my way around the corner and feel my bag drop, and I slump down on the floor with my back to the wall and close my eyes. Thankfully, this hallway was free of other students and even better, of professors.

"Cora? Hey, Cora, are you okay?"

I think that's Lewis. But what's he doing here? He's not in my English class…

"Lewis… what are you doing here?"

"I was wait—Nevermind… Cora, you don't look so good. What's going on??"

That's when it happened. I shut my eyes and got the most painful jolt through my skull that I can't believe I didn't scream. I saw colors, very bright colors and then it was very dark – but not black. I wasn't passed out, this was another vision; a very, very vivid one at that.

_I watched Rikki swimming through dark waters with a smile of relief on her face. She had gone swimming to be rid of some stress, something I knew well. There was something very unsettling about the area she was swimming towards, however, though it scared me enough that she had gone night-swimming. In my vision I concentrated hard and looked around through the darkness trying to figure out what was so familiar about this spot. I watched Rikki surface, and was able to look around. _

_She was swimming along the shore off of the beach where she used to share a trailer with her father. Even though I knew they had long since moved out and her dad had moved into a full house nearby when he got a new job, through Rikki I could feel that this place was still a source of serious comfort._

_It was also a source of serious trouble. I pushed myself to concentrate further and searched the water, heading for the small cluster of rocks that Rikki usually swam around and hid behind on the shore to dry herself off. In my vision, I got closer. Under the water, wedged in between the rocks I could see a tiny blinking red light. I found Rikki again and followed as she swam right towards the familiar rocks, still smiling. She stopped next to them to look around before surfacing, but never got the chance to. I watched her rest her hand on the rock just next to the blinking light, but she never saw it. The second her hand was down, the red light stopped blinking and went solid. In a split second, unbreakable plastic netting shot out from between the rocks, wrapping around Rikki, tangling in her hair and body with the small but heavy weights around the edges. Terrified, I watched her begin to struggle which only tangled the net further. As she struggled, I saw her body pull at a string connecting the net to the rocks cluster, and in another flash I second net shot from the rocks below her, trapping her further and fastening her body to the rocks._

_My heart was pounding so hard in my chest that I thought it might stop, but the vision only became worse from there. I watched Rikki continue to struggle without realizing that the more she yanked on the net, the more destruction she triggered. It was almost in slow motion as I watched now, her orange tail yanked another plastic trigger string, which knocked one of the bottom rocks out of the way and working almost like a pulley, I watched a trap cage rise up out of the sand underneath her as a result. It would have taken incredible tools to hide that – tools only a scientist might have. Rikki didn't even seem to notice the metal bars sliding up around all sides of her until the metal roof clanked down above her. For the first time in the years I had been able to see Rikki through my visions, her big blue eyes held absolute horror._

Lewis was holding my shoulders and shaking me a little, trying to get me to snap out of it.

"Cora! Come on, Cora wake up!"

My eyes squeezed shut before I let them open again. I was still sitting on the floor, but my legs felt like jelly. My head was no longer in searing pain and I wasn't dizzy anymore, but my entire body was drained and my arms were a little sore – but, overall I was immediately free of the extreme discomfort I had been in before.

"It's okay… I'm good…"

"You don't look okay, Cora… what happened just now? Are you sick? Come on, I can walk you home."

"No… I'm not sick. What that was, was really strong vision, Lewis. I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," I must have been going into convulsions or something, from the look on his face. Now I feel bad… "Was I… thrashing around or something? Did anybody else see?"

"No, not at all, you were completely still. It was like you were unconscious, now it looks like you're about ready to pass out again. Are you all right? What did you _see_?!"

"They're… not usually that intense. Last time it was like that was the day Mattie died."

"Uh-oh. Cora… what did you see?"

I felt my face drop a little and I gave him a lopsided frown.

"Rikki. I'm gonna need to talk to Rikki, _really_ soon." I sighed and pushed myself up a little, trying to get off the floor. I spoke too soon about the dizziness, and I had a slight head-rush when I started to stand up. I felt hands under my upper arms and turned to see Lewis – he must have helped me up.

"Thanks, Lewis." I smiled, and I was happy to see him smiling as well. Maybe I didn't scare him as badly as I thought I had, and that was good. I looked around, forgetting where I had dropped my bag before my vision and when I turned around again, Lewis was holding it.

"Don't worry, I've got it!" He smiled brightly, slinging the backpack over his shoulder above his own messenger bag.

"Oh! There it is. Haha, thanks again, Lewis," I said quietly and reached out to take it from him. He didn't hand it to me, and I was puzzled.

"I don't think you need to be carrying anything right now, you still look like you're not feeling too great."

"I'm okay. Just a little tired is all."

"Yeah, after that, I can only imagine. Come on, let's get you home so you can get some rest, okay?"

"I'll be okay, really. I have to head to work anyway, my shift starts at 6."

"Cora, you're going to _work_ after this? Maybe you should call and tell them you're kinda sick." He sounded so startled, I couldn't help but giggle a little at the shock on his face.

"Yep! I'm there until closing tonight. I'm sure I'll feel 100% back to normal in a little while, no problem."

"All right, then, if you're positive. But," He began, "in that case, I'll walk you to work."

"Lewis, I couldn't make you do that. You live in the _opposite_ direction…"

"It's okay, I don't mind one bit. Besides, it's going to be dark soon. Come on, I won't take no for an answer!" He smiled happily and leaned against the wall.

I blinked a little, confused. I had walked home a million times in the dark in northern California when I had still lived there. I felt pretty guilty now; I must have put on some performance during my vision that made him think I shouldn't walk home by myself. Way to go, embarrassing yourself, Cora. _Again_. Ugh. Either way, it was a very kind offer.

"All right… I'm still sorry about before, I really didn't mean to freak you out."

He raised his eyebrows and glanced at me as we started walking.

"Freak me out? You didn't, not at all. Not a whole lot freaks me out these days anymore, to be honest." He laughed, and I couldn't help but smile back. But I couldn't get the vision of Rikki being caught out of my head. The tight pain in my stomach is completely gone, so I don't think I have to worry about anything happening to her tonight, but I would have to talk to her and tell her what I saw, and _soon_.

*


	8. Rikki, Please

**A/N**: Completely off topic, but guys, I swear… I have _the_ most awkward life on Earth. Seriously, good LORD I wonder why such incredibly awkward, creepy things keep happening to me. I have _yet another_ stalker. Ughhh. Just… just fail. Big, huge, epic fail. This is the FOURTH TIME in my LIFE. I don't know why these old creeps choose to start with me. Seriously, WHY would they think I'm a good choice? ] : I'm not famous or interesting, it won't get you any MONEY, it will just get me very, _very_ ANGRY. My day was so astronomically bad, I kind of want to cry. : \

BACK on topic, : [ Here's chapter 8! I think I responded to all the reviewers from the last chapter in PMs, but I'll continue doing it in A/Ns when the mood strikes, anonymous reviews especially! Big thanks to everybody! _Please_ review, help me feel a little bit better about how utterly CRAP I'm feeling about this story because of how utterly FAILTASTIC my week has been, lol. Believe me, I could really, really use it right now, ughhh. Let's say… helping me reach the 25 review point? Sound fair? So, to everybody! Be well and enjoy! Unless you're my stalker, in which case…you will _never_ be well. : | Important note at the end; first question for my story "interactivity" challenge to myself, please help me out! : ]

_**The Next Afternoon – Rikki**_

With things going so well for me lately, I knew something was bound to screw it up eventually. It just sucks that it had to be so _soon_.

Cleo and Emma and I were fine on our own; we managed to chase Charlotte out of town, but now Denman is back and we have "Charlotte 2.0" on our hands. Just as I start getting my life back on track, so much blows up in my face it almost makes me want to laugh.

Dad gets a new job, aaaand I get fired from mine. I find a _new_ job, and then I find out that Denman is back in town. I get into a great college right outside of my hometown where Lewis, a friend despite how annoying he can sometimes be, is also going, and my boyfriend gets into a school miles away that really only lets me see him on the weekends – or when we both decide to skip class. I get an apartment with Cleo and Emma, and dad has a minor heart attack. He turned out all right and everything, but that doesn't stop me from dropping by as much as I can just to make sure the pantry isn't full of sugar cereal and ice cream. And if it is, I just bring it back to the apartment. Free food, _and_ keeping dad from destroying himself. Two birds with one stone! And most recently, I get a raise at work, and then Lewis brings us another killer. Good times, really. Not to mention that classes were horrendous today and I found out that I almost failed my last history exam. It wouldn't bug me so much if I weren't a _history major_.

With the way things are going today, I'd better be winning the lottery pretty soon. I felt a buzzing in my pocket and pulled out my phone, looking down at the screen.

Just when I thought things couldn't get worse. Now I had a text from my newest problem.

'Had a vision, I need to talk to you ASAP – Cora'

Ughhh. I sighed a little. After today, I needed something strongly caffeinated. If she wants to yap at me, she can yap at me while I down an iced coffee. If she's got plans to try to kill me, I doubt she'll try anything wild in public.

'Going to Gloria Jeans now. Meet there if you want.' I replied quickly and hit send, and stuffed my phone back into my pocket.

*

Gloria Jeans is only about a mile from my school's campus, so it took me a little while to walk there. When I got through the door, I could see her sitting in one of the stuffed chairs in the back. She saw me and waved a little, and before I got close enough for her to notice I rolled my eyes a little and headed over.

When I reached her I saw that she had two drinks on the table. I looked at her and dropped my backpack on the floor next to the chair across from her.

"Large butter toffee iced-coffee, 2 shots of espresso," I saw her smile a little and push the drink a little closer to me. I raised my eyebrow and sat down in the chair slowly. That was my regular, right down to the extra shots of espresso.

"How'd you know what I was going to order?"

"It would… sound weird if I told you…"

"Just spit it out." I don't have a whole lot of time for games, I have a ton of reading to get done tonight.

"Oh. Well… after I got your message I could kinda… taste it."

"Uhhh-huh…" I responded and reached for the drink. It was my favorite after all, but I looked down at it and then over at her before taking a sip, "Didja put something funny to this?"

"Huh… No, Rikki, of course not."

"All right," I took a sip. Oh wow, that's exactly what I needed after today. I felt someone watching me and I looked over to see that Cora was staring at me, "You had something to tell me, so tell me."

"Oh, sorry," She started. I watched her shift a little, "Rikki, I had a vision yesterday, about you. A really, really strong one. You were upset about something, and you went out a night for a swim. You went to a place I've seen you go before… Rikki you went to your old house…"

Where does this girl get off knowing so much about my life?! I met her a _week_ ago, this is _nonsense_…

"…there were traps set up in the rocks, and you triggered them and…Rikki, they caught you. Denman's team. You were in a locked cage…"

"Uh-huh, captured, gotcha," I took another sip of my coffee. The caffeine was helping me feel better already, but not enough to ignore the fact that this story she was telling me sounded like complete garbage, "Look, is there a point to all of this?" There, that shut her up for a second.

"I… What I'm saying, is that no matter what, you can_not_ go for night swims, especially not alone. They're waiting for you, they know where you guys like to go—"

"Look. You can stop right there. First off, you can quit _mind-stalking_ me and mind your own damn business. You don't have any right telling me what I can't do; for all I know, you're trying to set me up for your own trap," I leaned over the side of my chair to pick up my backpack, and then I felt a hand on my knee. It was Cora's; she had leaned across the table.

"Rikki, please…"

"Don't you _dare_ touch me!" I glared at her and without even realizing it I felt my fingers clench. A second later I watched her gasp and recoil away from me in pain, holding onto the hand that I had made her take off of me. Grabbing my bag, I stood up, taking my coffee with me, "Thanks for the drink." I muttered, and with that, I left.

*

This woman needs to stop calling me. This has been the 11th time my phone has rung, and so far I've only picked up once to say "I'm STUDYING" and hang up. I was really not interested in anything my mom had to say to me at this point, I knew it couldn't be any good news. After how bad and frustrating my day has been, talking to mom would just be the delightful cherry on top of the pile of sh—

And my thoughts are interrupted once again by my cell phone vibrating on the table. I had left it on because Emma's boyfriend Ash had offered to take all of us out to the movies, but because of all the homework I had to get done I had to stay behind. I didn't mind having the apartment to myself, it was the work and my mother that I minded. But, if anything went wrong at the movies I was on call and ready to go if they needed me.

_BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ. BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ._

'Are you _KIDDING_ me, mom?! What does she _want_?!' I picked up my phone and slid it open.

"What?!" I yelled.

"Rikki… it's mom."

"I know it's you, you've been calling every 15 minutes. I'm trying to do schoolwork, but you know, it's kind of distracting with my phone going off the whole time."

"I'm sorry, honey… but I thought I should tell you something."

I sighed and rolled my eyes. She was using her passive-aggressive voice; the tone she used when she wanted me to feel guilty for hating her guts. It wasn't going to work.

"What? Get on with it so I can get back to my own life—not that you'd know much about that."

"Rikki, I spoke to your father today. We had a long conversation and…"

"And _what_?" I didn't want that woman anywhere near my father, what business did she have talking to him out of the blue?

"…and we decided that we're going to try to work out our differences."

I froze, and I felt my heart start pounding my chest – not in the good way.

"You're going to _WHAT_?"

"We're going to give 'us' another try, Rikki."

"Why, you suddenly want to talk to him and be with him again now that he has _money_?!"

"No, of _course_ that's not why, honey, with his heart condition he needs…"

"He _doesn't_ need you. He proved that when you walked out and broke his heart when cash was tight. And I don't need you either." I hung up and this time, shut my phone off. Lewis was second in command if something went wrong tonight, and if it did he could handle it. My hands felt hot and I looked at my glass of water and realized that I had the liquid boiling without even realizing it. I needed to cool off, studying can wait.

I took the apartment key off of my key-ring and hid it across from our door under the flowerpot on the window sill. Locking the door behind me, I left and head for the docks.

*

It's dark out, and even though I'm not too concerned about anybody seeing me, I took a pretty careful look around. No one to the left, no one to the right, nobody behind me… Perfect. Without another second of waiting I dove off of the docks, immediately feeling a little less stressed as the water relaxed my body. After a few seconds I felt my tail start to take form and felt myself smile for the first time today – I used to hate this thing, but now… it's a part of me, it feels right.

My lungs relax as the mermaid in me kicks in and I won't need to breathe for a while. I don't even know how long I could hold my breath after this long; it used to only be 15 minutes but I'm pretty sure that now all of us were up to a few hours – I'd never had to go more than 2, but there was no pressure after those 2 hours. Good sign.

I swam aimlessly for a while, not really worrying about where I was going. To avoid being _nagged_ and _lectured_ by Lewis, I avoided the area around Mako, but I knew where always made me feel better – someplace that my mom had never set foot. I couldn't give less of a crap about what Charlottle-number-2 was yapping about earlier. I hardly even remembered what she had said.

Since it's dark and it's not like I have night vision, I had to surface every couple of minutes to make sure I was going in the right direction. After what felt like forever I looked out over the water and saw the lights through the windows of the trailers in the trailer park where I used to live with dad. I saw my rock cluster in the distance and sighed in relief; in a minute I would be drying off on the beach and I'd be able to walk around in what I used to call home. I sink back under the waves and head for the rocks. Seeing underwater is easier as I get closer, the lights from the trailer park really light the area up at night.

I'm so close now, all I have to do is get around these rocks and…

Whoa. What the hell was that?! I'm swimming as hard as I can but I'm not moving anywhere, something is holding me back. I did a quick check of my body; I wasn't stuck in anything. The rocks where I hide are 10 feet away, and I can't get there – are you _kidding_ me?!

Then I saw it. It looked like a black cloud of smoke next to me, but then I saw something else – silver. Oh, you have _got_ to be joking. It was Cora, and the black cloud was her hair swarming around her face. She wanted to try to trap me when I was trying to go home? Well let her try. She might have held me back but I could still boil her without moving an inch. She swam around in front of me putting herself between me and the rocks, and I raised my eyebrows and glared at her. I raised my hands and started clenching them. It was then that she turned away from the rocks to face me. Just as I was about to fry her for the second time in 24 hours, I saw something in her face that made me hesitate. Something about the look on her face… She could see what I was about to do and held up one hand, telling me to wait, and lifted the one that was closer to the rocks. She was probably 5 feet from the rocks and I could see that see was a little uneasy. I still couldn't move any closer or further away; that bitch was still holding me in my spot. She was lucky I had given her the benefit of the doubt… for the current few seconds, anyway…

I watched her get a little closer to the rocks. She looked a little nervous and it looked to me like she was looking for something. After a few seconds she swam back closer to where I was and looked at me briefly. I didn't get too long of a look at her but from what I could see, she looked like crap; does this chick _sleep_?

She looked away quickly and raised both of her hands and I could almost feel her concentrating through the water. In less than a second, I felt the water around me vibrating and suddenly saw two nets shoot out from between the rocks; fishing-line nets – with weights. I watched wide-eyed as Cora twisted her hand a little and I saw metal bars start to push their way up out of the sand, all the way up until a solid top clamped down and locked both nets inside. That could have been _me_ in there…?

I felt the hold on my body relax and I whipped my head around to face her. I still had my hands in their ready position, and for a split second my eyes locked on her. She was biting her lip and staring down, her eyes on the sand, and looked like she was close to tears. There was a brief second where my eyes met her brown ones, but she was already turning away. I didn't have a whole lot of time to look, though. I blinked once, and she was gone. I was alone in the dark water again.

*

_**The Next Afternoon – Rikki**_

"She's from California?"

"That's what she says, yeah," I replied. Zane had come home from school a few days early for a long weekend. In the past few years, he had gotten pretty protective over me, Cleo and Emma. I guess he still felt pretty bad about almost getting us caught up with Denman a few years ago, but we had forgiven him immediately. He didn't know what he was doing, if he had he wouldn't have done it.

He had taken me out to the Sheppard's Inn for lunch, where we had been going together for a few years. Thankfully, Cora wasn't working right now, but our friend Nate was our waiter.

"Well, she said she had a vision about you getting caught. Are you okay?" He asked. I shifted a little in my chair. So she hadn't hurt me, no… and she _hadn't_ been lying about the stupid traps… but that didn't mean she still couldn't have set them herself, right? Anyway, it's not like he asked about any of that.

"I don't _look_ captured to you, do I?"

"Well… No, you don't. But I had to ask. Either way, I still think I'm gonna talk to her," He said. He had his hand stretched across the table and was holding mine. I smiled a little bit. I guess it couldn't hurt, whatever he wanted to do. Whatever made him worry less.

Nate came over to our table with our food and drinks. He set the drinks down first, and the kid was nice enough to put a foam grip around it so I didn't have to touch the wet glass. A few years out of high school have really done him some good, and he had actually turned out to be a pretty nice kid. About a year ago, he had found out about our secret. Instead of reacting like we'd expected him to be, Nate had been surprisingly cool and helpful about it—especially with Cleo.

"Here ya go guys, sorry about the wait," He said, standing up straight again.

"Thanks, Nate! So, have you asked Cleo out yet?" I smirked. Messing with people was a simple joy, but God I loved it. He knew I didn't mean any harm, but look at him blush – I was right. Zane smirked and chucked.

"Uhh… heh. Not quite, Rikki. So how is school going, Zane?" Nate asked. Nate went to the same school as Lewis and I, and unfortunately, Cora went, but only got to see Zane about as often as I did.

"It's great, man, going good. Look I'm gonna give you a call later, I'll need your help with something, okay?" Zane said, then looked at me and winked. Huh. I dunno what that's all about; I guess I'll find out later?

"Yeah, no problem Zane! My break is in a couple hours, just gimme a call then." Nate smiled at us and left.

"What was that all about?" I raised my eyebrow and looked at him curiously. He smiled back.

"Just some business I'm gonna take care of, don't worry."

*

*** * *IMPORTANT A/N:** Responses needed, it doesn't matter whether it's through a review or a PM. Okay guys, this story is REALLY long. Like I said, I've got most of it written out already and if I leave everything in that I wanted to leave in, then it has the potential to have between 15-20 chapters. I may shorten some parts, but what I need to know is: are you willing to keep reading this if it gets that long? I know some people just want a quick plot, climax and resolution in fewer than 10 chapters, but I really like to build stories and characters with events. So, please let me know so I know how to tackle editing this story! Thanks in advance guys, I know I can count on you all!


	9. Complications

IMPORTANT A/N: **Interactive Challenge time!!!!!!! **Okay guys, here's what I want you to do (only if you wanna, obv, haha): After reading this chapter, leave a comment with a song that you think could go along with this chapter. Actually, if you're interested, you can do this for ANY chapter you want OR give me a song that you think matches the story overall. : D I will listen to each song and whichever song I like best, I will contact the "winner" with the following prize: list the top 3 things you would like to see happen in the next chapter and I will work one of those things in!  Enjoy, guys! Read and comment with your song choice! Shouldn't be too hard, this chapter is pretty full of teen angst. Well. Not really teen. Young adult angst, I guess? Pff. There's a ton of songs about angst, hahaha : ] Can you tell I really like this challenge?

-

_**The Next Day**_

It was a Friday afternoon, and Emma, Cleo and Rikki were spending the day on the sand at the beach. Taking care to stay far enough from the water's edge, they had sprawled out on their towels. Rikki had told them about the ordeal with Cora that had happened a few days ago.

"You really think she set those traps on her own?" Cleo piped up curiously. Maybe she had been wrong about not wanting to name Cora as a villain after all.

"Well, 'pretty sure she's capable of it, right? I mean, there aren't a whole lotta things I know of that can set a trap-cage under sand _under water_, I figure that somebody telekinetic would have no problem with that."

"Maybe we're over-reacting," Started Emma, "After all, Rikki, it's not like she hurt you."

"Not this time, but who knows what she plans on trying. All I know, is I don't like being mind-stalked and I sure as hell don't like being _followed_. And think about it, because next time it might be you two, not me."

Emma and Cleo exchanged nervous glances with one another.

Rikki was glad that her sunglasses were hiding most of her face. She had the slightest doubt that she may have been wrong about Cora. She had stopped her from getting trapped in that cage, even if she'd followed her to do so. Being followed was better than being a science experiment. But, it wasn't like Rikki to let her doubt show. She was resolved, and there was always a chance that her initial gut instincts could still be right. But no harm had been done – so no harm, no foul…right?

*

"We haven't seen too much of you lately," Cleo had stopped into the Juicenet after her classes finished for the day and had run into Lewis, who sat at a table outside on the veranda. She had almost not seen him, as his laptop screen had been covering most of his face. But with a smile, she had grabbed her to-go smoothie and head outside, sliding into the seat across from him, "How have you been?"

"Oh hey, Cleo!" Lewis looked up from his computer and smiled at his best friend over the top of it, "I'm sorry I haven't been around too much lately; now it's like if I'm not in class, I'm over at Max's place doing research or with Cora…" He stuttered and looked down at his computer screen again quickly when he saw Cleo raise her eyebrows and her typical deviously childish grin spread across her face, "You know… for field-work…and research…"

"Uhh-huh, _field-work_…"

"Come on, Cleo…" Lewis groaned and smacked his palm to his forehead gently, shutting his eyes.

"You know I'm only messing with you, Lewis," She smiled warmly and took a sip of her smoothie, "Have you asked her on a date, yet?" Lewis's face went mortified immediately.

"_What_?! No… no, no, no. I can't do that… I doubt she even knows..."

"Come on, Lewis! She takes good care of you, kept you from busting your skull open on those rocks that day, I'll bet she's giving you dinner again tonight when you work on that project," She stopped for a second and looked at her friend's face and hers lit up even more, "Look at how happy she makes you, you're _blushing_—"

"I don't _blush_…" Lewis muttered, glancing off the side of the veranda at the docks and shifting slightly in his chair. Cleo smiled brightly and rolled her eyes.

"Whatever you say. But, I think going for it is worth a shot. Why not, I mean?"

"Well, because…" Lewis started, but his words trailed off. He furrowed his eyebrows together and finally sighed, "Fine, fine. You're right, I guess."

Cleo smiled triumphantly.

"Of _course_ I'm right! Does that mean you're going to ask—"

"Cleo, _please_." Lewis groaned again and shut his eyes. The "girly talk" wasn't something that he was totally comfortable with, even with being surrounded with it for years. Cleo stopped and collected herself, but her smile never faltered. She would drop the subject for now, but the thought remained in her head. She still wasn't positive that Rikki's feelings about Cora were _wrong_, but she was torn. So far Cora seemed nice; she took care of her best friend and made him happy, and she wanted all of her friends to be happy… But, if it turned out that what made Lewis happy was _not_ something that made Rikki and Emma happy, and Cleo had encouraged it, there would undoubtedly be even more problems. But for now, Cleo thought, she would deal with things as they came. It was what she had always done, and the only thing that she could do.

"All right, all right, sorry. So, you mentioned Max; what are you working on with him?"

The blush of embarrassment melted away instantly and Lewis's face brightened immediately at the chance to talk about his scientific endeavors with Max, a friend of Rikki, Emma and Cleo's mermaid-predecessors.

"Well," He began, looking around briefly to make sure no one could hear them, "Max had always said he had wondered if there were other moon-pools in the world aside from the one on Mako Island, and what that would mean in terms of different kinds of mermaids. Well, Cora let me have her and her sister's notes about their own transformations and it's obvious there are physical differences between you, but we're finding that there are some deeper differences too."

"Like what?"

"Well, for instance… the pool on Mako is a saltwater pool, and anytime any water touches your skin you all have about 10 seconds until you transform, right? For Cora and her sister, their moon-pool was freshwater, and she only has about 5 seconds or _less_ to transform when fresh water touches her skin. Saltwater only turns her if she's completely submerged in it."

"Weird… why?"

"Well, you know more than anyone I know, that the moon has an effect on bodies of water. Because you guys are saltwater mermaids, you've got the elements of salt-water AND fresh water in your make-up, because that's basically what ocean water is – fresh water _with_ salt and saline. Cora doesn't have that salt-water element, which is why it takes so much more of it on her body for her to transform; the salt interferes with her transformation. Because the freshwater element is the only one she _has_, it's strong and quicker to turn her."

"Wow. I _actually_ understood that, that's a first!" Cleo started, her eyes widened slightly in surprise and she chuckled a little bit, "Have you found anything else?"

"Well, now we're looking into your differences in powers. We think we might be on to something; Max has some really old research he's going to pull out later on so that we can keep working on it, but we think we're close!"

"Our differences in powers…?" Cleo said out loud, but her mind wandered back to Rikki's suspicions about Cora's abilities.

"Yup, but I'll let you know when we figure that out, if you're interested, that is…"

"Oh! Yes, of course," Cleo smiled and looked down at her watch, "Well, I should get going, it's my turn to make dinner tonight. Don't work yourself to death, Lewis! See you later!"

"See ya!" Lewis smiled back at his friend as she got up and left the table and looked back down at his computer screen. It was 6 o'clock - time for him to go, too!

*

_**Cora**_

Dinner was done, so I set my books up on the living-room table. I yawned a little; I wasn't hungry, but we had a project to work on and I couldn't ask Lewis to come work on our thesis project without feeding him at this hour. Thankfully, he is really understanding and I was able to get a few hours of work in after class. And even more thankfully, making dinner there had only been one minor setback when boiling the water for the pasta; some had splashed out and gotten on me, and I was reduced to lying in the middle of my kitchen floor staring up at the light sighing waiting for my tail to go away. More annoying than anything at this point…

I heard a knock on the door and smiled a little; that was definitely Lewis's knock, there's a definite difference between his and any of my neighbors'.

I head to the door and opened it, glad to see Lewis seemingly very happy smiling back at me.

"Hey Lewis! Come right in, the food is done if you're hungry!" I yawned a little and smiled back at him, closing the door behind him.

"Hey, Cora. Wow, thanks… that's really nice, you don't have to keep making me dinner, though."

Uh oh. There it is, I can feel my cheeks getting warm. How did I know _that_ was coming…

"Heh, Lewis… if you can work around my work schedules, the _least_ I can do is feed you. It's really no problem at all, go ahead and help yourself."

He smiled at me again and set his bag down in the living room and went about making his plate while I flipped through my notes to find my portions of the thesis that I had finished so far and let my mind wander to Linda Denman. I needed to find a way to get her out of town and away from the girls, but how? I had no idea what kinds of tools and equipment she had at her disposal, but I did know very well what kind of terror she was capable of. I looked down at the whitish healing burns on my palm from my meet-up with Rikki last week and sighed. I know the girls don't like me, at least Rikki doesn't. But truth be told, I can't let that matter. I don't _want_ to push their boundaries; I don't _want_ to scare them, I don't _want_ to make them uncomfortable, but since arriving in Australia the urge to keep them safe has been even stronger, almost dominating and something I was getting used to. I have to figure out something before I have another vision like my last one… but how am I going to get close enough to Denman to be able to know how to get rid of her?

My thoughts were interrupted by the shifting of the couch cushions next to me and I snapped out of it to see that Lewis had sat down at my side with his food and started flipping through his own notes.

"All right, I've got the introduction chapter just about finished, I figure we can go through mine and yours and find sources and proofread and all that before we move on." He sounded cheerful, this made me happy. If people around me were in good moods, it meant that things were going well, and that is a great thing.

"Sounds good to me." I smiled a little and we traded notebooks. Lewis's handwriting is only a hair short of a wreck, so he had been thoughtful enough to type out his notes. I settled onto the couch and grabbed a pen and the textbook and started scanning the first page from the top. After a little while I felt something strange – like I was being watched. I looked up a little bit without really thinking and saw that Lewis was staring at me from the other end of the couch. The second our eyes met I flicked mine away, feeling that stupid warmth flooding back into my face. It's a good thing blushing doesn't show too well on my skin. Oh crap… Does it? I guess I don't really know; I haven't exactly been in too many situations that have _made_ me blush. I'm pretty sure he's just watching me mark up his papers, but that only makes it _more_ embarrassing because it means I'm overreacting. Thankfully, my hair is hiding the side of my face that he can see, so I just try to go back to reading through his work.

It's so hard to now, though. My head is so clouded, so distracted. I'm reading the words, but not absorbing them. Not only am I exhausted, but now I have to remind myself that I can't have crushes _and_ that my job is to be taking care of Denman. I can hardly even focus at this point, and it's only been about 2 hours. After a while I feel my eyelids start to get heavy and as I much as I try, they resist my fighting. Right before I feel them close, the jumbled thoughts and anxious emotions in my mind separate and become very clear. I spoke, but I could barely hear myself talking.

"Lewis…? Where is Dr. Denman's lab…?"

"It's just outside town past Cleo and Emma's school… It's right on the coast."

But I couldn't even form my mouth around the words to respond. I felt a pleasant smile spread across my face before my eyes finally shut.

I know how to find out what Denman has at her disposal _and_ what tricks she's got up her sleeve. And it's so simple, I can't believe I haven't thought of it before.

*

_**Lewis**_

Cleo is right. It shouldn't be that hard to ask a person on a date. I had already probably made a fool out of myself by _staring_ at her… _again_. She probably just thinks I'm a sleazy creep, but if that's the case then the worst she can do is say no and kick me out of her house, right? I put down my pen and sighed. I could do this, no problem.

"Hey… Cora? Would you maybe want to go out… sometime?"

Silence. Wow, I guess it's pretty bad if she doesn't even want so say "no." Then I managed to muster up the courage to look over at her. She was slouched against the other side of the couch asleep, with all her books still stacked up in her lap.

Wow… she must have been really exhausted; she was just talking to me a few seconds ago…

Talking to me a few seconds ago about where Denman's lab was. What is she thinking of doing..? Denman is a dangerous woman, but she knows that. Hopefully she's not planning anything too risky for herself. Even though Max and I have been working with her for a few weeks trying to get a hang on her power, it doesn't seem to be changing too much. So far, we've only been able to activate her power by scaring her, and even then it was only when Max or I threatened ourselves or each other with some kind of physical harm, or talked about it. It was never serious; Max had become kind of like a quirky uncle to me over the past few years, but after trying just about everything to trigger her ability, this was all we had. However, she still couldn't defend against a threat to herself, and truth be told, if Denman were to pull something I don't think she could do anything about it.

I wanted to ask her what she was going to do, but I would feel crappy waking her up now; I know she doesn't get a whole lot of sleep. Well, she probably won't be out that long anyway.

I leaned across the couch and took the books off of her lap and carefully slid the pen out of her hand and put everything down on the coffee table. Then I took a second look at her. This whole… mushy thing was a little frustrating, but I couldn't help but smile a little. I dragged the toss-blanket off the back of the couch and lay it over her. Feeling a little better, I stopped trying to force away the smile and picked my pen back up and got back to work.

I have to remember to ask her about Denman when she wakes up…

-

**A/n**: Next chapter… Cora meets Denman face to face. But what if someone misunderstands their meeting?


	10. Watching and Waiting

A/n: Lol aw, I was so disappointed that nobody gave me a song! I thought that was a pretty cool challenge, haha. I guess maybe I was wrong about the interactivity thing; I would you guys rather just read it and not want to contribute to it? That's cool if so, consider it done : ]

Next! I hit 800 hits and I'm super excited about it – thank you so much for helping me get there! _**I would really love it if I could hit 30 reviews before posting chapter 11**_, if you guys would help me out! I hope everybody is doing well, I'm having less issues with the stalker which is a WONDERFUL thing! Enjoy the chapter guys, in this chapter Cora meets Denman, and Zane makes an intense decision.

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_**The Next Day**_

Lewis hadn't gotten the chance to ask Cora about Denman the night that he had gone to her condo to work on their thesis. After a while, he had begun to get tired as well and he had forgotten to ask. By that time, Cora had woken up and they worked together for another hour before they decided to call it a night and Lewis went home. It wasn't until he was in bed already that it dawned on him, but by that time it was nearly 1 o'clock in the morning and he was sure that Cora was in bed by that time. He shrugged it off for the time being and resolved to ask her the next day.

However, the next day when Cora stayed behind with Lewis in the science lab, he had not gotten the reply he was hoping for.

"So, Cora… why did you ask me about where Denman's lab is last night?"

She smiled warmly at him from her spot next to him at the desk.

"Just curious."

Lewis eyed her curiously.

"Is that so…? Uh… Cora… I know that you know this already, but Denman is dangerous. _Really_ dangerous."

"Believe me, I know. But, I know I can come up with a way to get her to leave."

"Just… don't do anything crazy, all right? I don't want to see you get hurt." The second the words were out of his mouth he had to resist the urge to smack himself in the face and felt his cheeks go pink. Cora put her head down a little to let her hair cover her own cheeks. Though she had chalked it up to Lewis just being nice, her own wishful thinking had embarrassed her again. She slid her books off the desk and stood up, smiling a little and tucked her hair behind her ear.

"Not crazy, only helpful. I have to head down to the office for work; I'll see you later, Lewis!" And with a quick smile, she was gone.

Lewis clapped his hand to his forehead and sighed, then returned to the microscope.

*

_**A few days later – Cleo**_

I woke up to beautiful weather this morning and I knew that any second that I didn't have class, I wanted to be outdoors. Emma's morning class ended at the same time as mine, so I head over to the building she was in and asked her if she wanted to go grab some coffee and sit outside with me at the café a few blocks from school. She said yes, and we were on our way!

Once we had our coffee, I let Emma pick where we sat. She is very particular about things like this, it's just a part of her slightly controlling personality, but after all these years of knowing each other it's just one of her quirks that I've grown to love – just like Rikki's stubbornness and Lewis's nerves, and even my own little sister's nosiness. Besides, it doesn't matter to me where we sit, just as long as I can feel the sun on my face. So, after a few minutes of scanning the patio, Emma led the way to a small table at the edge near a flower-bush.

The combination of my mint tea, the beautiful warm day and the bright pink flowers surrounding us could not have been any better. It might be the little things that make me happy, but that's more than all right with me. I lazily let my eyes close and leaned back in the chair for a moment, just enjoying the break from school. When I opened my eyes I scanned the patio, taking in the lovely day; from across the patio I saw Nate flipping through a textbook and smiled. He's really turned out to be a genuinely sweet individual. I can't blame him for being a jerk in high school; everybody was looking to fit in back then, and how else could I expect him to act when everyone he hung out with was a jerk as well? But, I had known that he wasn't all bad. When you got him alone, you could see that underneath the stupid high-school boy charade was just a sweet kid caught up with a bad crowd. He picked his head up from his book and looked over at me and waved a little. He's got such a nice smile. It's contagious, and I smiled and waved back.

Then I saw a hand directly in front of my face, waving and snapping at me – it was Emma. Whoops. She must have been trying to get my attention for a while…

"_Cleo!_"

"Sorry, Emma… what's the matter?"

"Look! That's Cora." She pointed to the sidewalk on the other side of the street. Sure enough, Cora was walking down the sidewalk coming towards the café.

"Huh. But their school is on the other side of town… maybe she's on her way to work at the restaurant?"

"Cleo… sweetie. She's not wearing her work clothes, and the Sheppard's Inn is two blocks back, she's passed it already."

"Oh. Maybe she's going shopping? I know this is their midterm week, Nate is over there studying now… maybe she had a free day and decided to go out…?"

"I don't think she's going shopping. The only thing further down the road is a men's store and the only thing past THAT is…well…"

I felt my nerves tense up. It couldn't be… could it?

"…Denman's lab?"

"Exactly. I think maybe we ought to follow her, Cleo. This doesn't seem right."

I frowned a little. So much for a perfect day… but I trusted Emma, and we _were_ supposed to find out what Cora's intentions were…

"All right, then."

We stood up and made our way off the patio and back onto the street. We stayed on the opposite side of the road from Cora so we could see her better, but staying well behind her. We followed her for quite a way down the road and I felt my nerves tense up when we got closer to Denman's lab – it definitely appeared that that's where Cora was headed, now…

Denman's new lab was far more extravagant than her last one, who _knows_ what she's got in there. It looks more like a mansion on the beach than a lab. Thankfully, we know she's only renting this place, but that doesn't mean she won't be sticking around.

We watched Cora enter the property through an arched hedge and make her way to the other side of the lab. I exchanged a glance with Emma – were we still following her now? Emma grabbed my hand and pulled me through the entrance as well, and we followed after Cora silently staying hidden along the hedge. She stopped when she got to the edge of the side of the lab and I saw her sigh and gently tug the end of her ponytail. She looked…nervous? We saw her turn the corner around to the back of the building and Emma grabbed me and we quickly hurried to the corner where she had just been standing.

We peeked around the corner of building and I was immediately in awe of the ridiculously beautiful view. The back of the building was a neatly manicured garden with a few small tables set up, and past it was the ocean. The building was literally perched on the beach. It was beautifully distracting, but Emma nudged me and I focused back on Cora… who was walking straight towards where Dr. Denman, who sat under an umbrella at one of the tables with a microscope. Emma and I exchanged a look before watching Cora carefully again as they began their conversation.

"Dr. Denman?"

"Oh, hello! You must be Cora Dean, yes? The one I spoke to on the phone!"

"Yes ma'am, that's me."

"Oh, dear, just call me Linda. Thank you for coming all the way down here to meet with me, I'm sorry about the odd timing, I hope you aren't missing class…?"

"No, ma'am—Linda, I've got the day off, it's not a problem at all, I understand that you're very busy."

"Well thank you for being so understanding! It's wonderful to meet you after our conversation yesterday, and I'll have you know I sent your teacher you mentioned an email and he said such wonderful things about you! Said it was a shame you left the states, as a matter of fact." I watched Dr. Denman flash her perfect smile. She seemed like she was being genuinely kind to Cora, and I had to wonder if Denman knew Cora's secret.

"Wow… That's really an honor, you know, thank you so much. He's exaggerating, I'm sure, but I brought you my transcript like I promised…" Cora pulled her bag up into her lap and pulled out a red folder and smiled, handing it to Dr. Denman, "Here you go."

We watched Dr. Denman flip through the contents of the folder and watched a pleased expression brighten up her face even further.

"Cora, this is quite impressive! I may just have to find a place for you. As a matter of fact, let's head inside and I'll give you a tour, and we'll talk a little more okay?"

"All right, that sounds great!"

The stood up from the table and head up the stairs leading into the building and disappeared. I looked at Emma to see her staring back at me with her eyebrows raised expectantly.

"Well, Cleo? Does _that_ sound like she's going shopping? Come on, we've gotta talk to Rikki."

I bit my lip and frowned a little. It didn't.

But something still felt very off… very wrong, and I still couldn't place it.

-

_**Meanwhile – Zane**_

Having Friday's off from school was something I could definitely get used to. Rikki had this week off from school for midterms, and I left campus early today to head home to see her. I know she's a big girl and I certainly know that she can handle herself with the way she can burn anything she wants… but after finding out how much of a psycho Charlotte was, I wasn't taking risks anymore. I almost got them killed once, but I refuse to let anything happen to Rikki, or Emma and Cleo; even if I had to take matters into my own hands.

I had asked Rikki to meet down by the beach, and we'd spent most of the afternoon laying around in the shade. I noticed that she seemed a little frustrated – moreso than usual. I have _long_ since learned that hell hath no fury like a Rikki's rage, but I wasn't letting anything go anymore.

"What's wrong?"

"Ehh. It's just Charlotte #2 again. Emma and Cleo followed her to Denman's lab today. Overheard them talking, sounds an awful lot like this girl is asking to be working with her, and there's only one thing _that_ means."

"She's going to give you guys up…"

"Exactly."

There was absolutely no way that I would be letting that happen. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and texted Nate. I was going to keep this psycho away from my girlfriend and friends.

_**Later that day – Cora**_

Even though I haven't done too much physically today, I already felt exhausted by the time I reached the restaurant. I had met Linda Denman for the first time today, and even though she had no clue about me being a mermaid, my nerves have been in a knot ever since I had called her to plan our meeting. I had lied and told her that I was interested in an internship with her at her lab. I didn't want to have to lie, because the sad thing is, that if Denman doesn't think you're a science experiment she's actually quite nice. But, I needed to find out what Denman had in her lab, and what she was capable of doing to Cleo, Emma and Rikki.

Ever since I had become a mermaid, my nerves have been especially sensitive and being so nervous during my meeting with Denman had made me feel like I had just run 5 miles and all I really want to do is rest. But, I really can't afford to skip out on any work, so after the meeting I went home and spent a few hours cleaning up and studying for tomorrow's biology midterm, and then finally put on my work clothes – red flats, black skinny jeans and a long belted black blouse.

I looked in the mirror and sighed, trying to make my hair look decent. I curled it loosely and put on as little makeup as I thought I could get away with. My boss Jackie never said explicitly that I had to do either thing, but when you've worked in restaurants as long as I have… you can kinda tell what you should look like.

I smiled a little at myself, trying to see if I could make myself appear alert. It worked a little bit, I guess. All I had to do was make myself look alert for… I checked my watch – 5 hours. Not too bad… right? I slung on my wristlet and headed out the door.

-

I yawned a little as I headed up the wooden steps into the restaurant. I headed to the back to leave my wristlet and went to grab my nametag out of my cubby when I heard my friend Nate from behind me.

"Hey… Cora."

I turned a little and smiled at him. Hm. He looks nervous, and his eyes look like he's worrying about something. I feel a knot start in my stomach just from being around him, I hope that kid is okay. He has to deal with customers even more directly than I do.

"Oh hey, Nate! Are you all right? You look kind of upset."

"Huh? Oh… Oh yeah, I'm fine. So look… Craig called in and offered to pick up your shift for free. I hope you don't mind… I went ahead and told him you'd be interested, because I know you've got that biology midterm tomorrow."

Wow. I didn't see that coming. That was really nice or Craig, and of Nate. I needed the money, but I needed the rest badly. I felt guilty having Craig do my job for me on his own time and then having myself be paid for it, but I'd make it up to him somehow.

"Really?"

"Yup! Sorry you had to come all the way down here… I was just about to call you when you showed up."

"Oh, that's okay. Is he positive? I mean… it's 5 hours of his own time…" I had to be sure; this was an incredibly generous gesture.

"Haha, yeah. You worry too much, anyone ever told you that?" He smiled and put his hand on my shoulder, but I couldn't help but sense worry. The feeling in my stomach got a little stronger, "Go on home, get some sleep and good luck on your midterm tomorrow, okay?"

"Wow… all right. That's such a lifesaver! Can you let Craig know that I say thank you and that I'll make this up to him somehow?"

"Sure, Cora… No problem."

"Thanks, Nate. See you!" I put my nametag down and picked my wristlet back up and headed back out of the restaurant. I smiled tiredly as I walked out into the cool nighttime air, happy to be on my way home.

But what I didn't see was the man in the Land Rover waiting in the parking watching me through his window.

-

**A/n WARNING:** The next chapter is a little bit intense and will be pushing the T rating to a rating of M. I have one request – if you like the story, please leave a review if you would like to see more, otherwise… there will be no more, lol. Pretty simple! : ] Take care, guys.


	11. Curiosity Killed the Cat

A/N: Thanks for the feedback, guys; it's strongly appreciated! Like I said last time, this chapter will be a little heavier than the rest, so just… beware of that, k? : ] Enjoy, review, take care!

-

_**Cora**_

It's a beautiful night, thankfully. I had heard this morning on TV that there might be rain, but I can't smell it in the air and I can see every single star in the sky. Maybe when I get back home I'll bring my notes outside on the porch to study…

I pass the beach and my mind travels to Denman. In the past few days I've been spending a lot of time with her and at her lab. I sighed. I had seen and heard a lot in just a few days; enough to prove that my feelings, that have been until now JUST feelings, that Denman was out for the girls were right. Denman's right-hand man, Jerry, had told me that they were onto "something big" once, but lost it. Now, they had reason to believe it was back. They had showed me their holding tank area; all of the tanks had animals in them – except for three identical ones in the back of the room.

Seeing THAT had made my blood run cold, but when Denman had taken me into her office I saw a large object with a cloth thrown over it to conceal it. When she had left to meet a colleague briefly, I had looked underneath the cloth. The object was a machine – it was a polygraph machine. A lie-detector test. And as far as I know, those are only used on humans; not on marine animals. During my tour, down by the dolphin pools I had passed a room that looked like a hospital room. I peeked through the door and saw a long table with holding straps. Last time I checked, _dolphins_ didn't get strapped to tables. People did.

I sighed, lost in thought. Whatever I was going to do, I needed to do it fast. I was so distracted, I didn't hear the car pull up alongside me.

_**Zane**_

I waited in the parking lot for this girl to come out of the restaurant. Nate had been able to help me out by getting her off of work. I didn't tell him a whole lot about why. He knows Emma, Cleo, Rikki, and this girl Cora's mermaid secret. As far as he knew, though, Cora was just a co-worker and a friend. He didn't know about her overstepping her boundaries, and he didn't have to.

I switched my music on, and after a few minutes I saw her leave. I started the car and watched her turn the corner down the road before pulling out of the parking lot, following her.

I waited at the corner of every street for her to get far enough ahead of me. She didn't seem to notice me a block behind her, as I had my lights switched off. It looked like she was taking the shortcut home, which was just fine with me. The road we were on was empty aside from a few parked cars, and the majority of the buildings were abandoned homes. After a while I saw her getting close to the old basketball court and decided that this was the perfect time to pull up to her – the basketball hoops had been taken down years ago, so there wouldn't be anything in there for her to send flying into my skull. I reached under my seat and felt the metal of the gun my dad gave me for my last birthday. I sighed. Hopefully this wouldn't be something I had to use, but I wasn't taking chances anymore. I pulled it out and tucked it into the back of my pants, and pulled up to the side of her and unrolled my window.

"Hey – You're Cora, yeah?"

She stopped walking and jumped a little before she turned to look at me. She must've really not been paying attention if she didn't hear me pulling up.

"Yes… You…I've seen you before. You're Rikki's boyfriend Zane?"

I smirked. We had never met, but I know that she'd probably seen me during visions about Rikki.

"Yeah. That's a neat trick you got there…" I muttered and turned the car off, opening the door and getting out and facing her at my full height. She's pretty tall for a girl; I'm 6'2" and she's not too much shorter than me. However, she looks _anything_ but threatening – just like Charlotte did. That must be one of the things Rikki doesn't like. I know Rikki, and she likes to be able to size people up by looking at them. Games and investigating people weren't up her alley. So, I'd make it up my alley.

"I… I guess so, yeah. I should probably get going…"

"Hey, hey… hang on a minute," I said and gave her my best smile and put my hand on her shoulder, leading her through the entrance to the basketball court, "Let's talk first."

"Is… something wrong?" She asked. The basketball court was dark except for the light that got in from the streetlights. Didn't matter, it was enough for me to see her face and her to see mine.

"You could say that." The friendly voice was gone, I wasn't going to use that for another second, "It's my understanding that you've been poking around where you don't belong, making a lot of people very uncomfortable."

"But… what? I know the girls don't really like me, but I'm only trying to –"

"To get rid of Denman?" I cut her off, "Yeah, I've heard that before. Well, Cora. If that were true, you would have done it already. You would have used that mind-moving crap and the visions you supposedly have to figure something out and she would be gone by now."

"But… Zane that's not really quite how it works—"

"Sure it's not," I took a step toward her, and she took a step back. I took another, and she took another one back, and she was standing up against the brick wall, "Why do you look so nervous? Someone like you shouldn't really worry about somebody _else_ being a threat."

"Look… I really don't mean anybody any harm I just—"

I saw her starting to lift her hands; I knew from seeing Rikki use her powers over the years that this was how it started. The second I noticed it I grabbed both of her wrists in my left and without even thinking about it the back of my right hand and arm flew into the side of her face, and I saw her head tilt back and hit the brick wall behind her. I couldn't believe I had just hit a girl, but this wasn't just a girl. She was dangerous and who knows what she was about to do. The blow to her head didn't knock her out but she did seem dazed and she slumped down to sit against the wall. I kneeled down in front of her so that our eyes were level.

"Don't you _dare_ try that shit with me. _I_ know what you're up to, _they_ know what you're up to. If you think I'm going to let you become all buddy-buddy with Denman and then lead her straight to them, you have never been more wrong in your life."

"W-_what_?! It's not like that! No… you don't understand I would never, ever do anything to hurt them I swear—"

I had heard enough. I was going to make my final point last, and make it mean something. I pulled the gun out of the back of my jeans, cocked it and pointed it in her face.

"I'm not going to kill you tonight. But I swear to god – If I ever hear about you being anywhere near those girls again, if I ever hear about you doing something even remotely out of line, you will _not_ be so lucky next time."

That shut her up. I glared at her and stood up, keeping the gun in my hand until I got to my car just in case. I got back in and tossed it onto the passenger seat, started the car and left.

_**Meanwhile – Lewis **_

I couldn't believe we had done it. Max and I had used a combination of his old research and our new research to figure out how and why Cora's powers were so different from Cleo, Rikki and Emma's. I had left Max's and was on my way to Cora's house to tell her, but I gave her a call first. It rang and I got no answer. I shrugged it off and figured her phone was on silent and headed to her condo. I knocked on her door and waited – no answer. I knocked again, still no answer. It was only 6:30, she wouldn't be asleep already. Something felt weird to me, but I brushed it off. She was probably in the library or at the lab at school studying for our biology midterm tomorrow. Or, she could be with Denman at her lab. I know she's been spending an awful lot of time there finding out what Denman had and what she was planning, but I couldn't help but worry. I don't _love_ the idea of Cora being around Denman but I know how intent she is on getting Denman away from Cleo Emma and Rikki. I didn't want Denman to find out about her and I definitely didn't want anything to happen to her.

-

_**The Next Day – Lewis**_

I looked around the lecture hall; the test was about to start, and I didn't see Cora. She wasn't in her usual seat next to me, and she was never late. That was weird. I glanced around the room and saw her all the way in the back corner of the room with the hood of her brown sweater pulled up, her hair in her face but I could still tell it was her even from my spot in the front of the room. Maybe she had figured that since she was late, she'd just slip into a seat at the back. Oh well; I'll catch her after the test is over and I'll let her know about what Max and I figured out last night.

-

The test was over and my hand was cramped, but thankfully I didn't have any more tests today. I stood up and turned to head up the stairs to leave and meet Cora. But, strangely enough, I looked around where she had been sitting and she was already long gone.

*

_**Emma**_

I picked up Rikki's feet so that I could push the vacuum over the carpet between the couch and the table. My only class today has been cancelled, so I decided to take full advantage of the free day and was going to clean our apartment until it was spotless. So far I was doing all right; Cleo isn't back from class yet and Rikki isn't getting in the way too badly – she hasn't moved from this spot on the couch since she woke up. I know she has a midterm later on today, if I were her I would be studying. But, it isn't my place to tell her when to study. Or to study at all.

I heard the door close and saw Cleo bounce happily into the kitchen, heading straight for the fridge. I kept vacuuming and smirked as Rikki kept leaning from side to side, trying to see the TV around me. I smiled and continued cleaning.

After I was done, I moved onto the final quick task of wiping down the kitchen. Just as I was finishing, there was a knock on our door. I know Ash was going to come by today, but if this was him he was very early… I opened the door and was greeted by Lewis, who looked a little bit frazzled.

"Hi Lewis! Come on in, everyone is inside." I smiled and ushered him in and closed the door behind him.

"Good, I wanted to talk to all of you. Easier if you're all in one spot…" He walked straight into the kitchen where Cleo was sitting down eating and sat near her on one of the barstools.

"Rikki!" I called her, "Lewis is here, he wants to talk to us." A few seconds later Rikki slumped out into the room.

"Better not have brought us another mermaid, Lewis…" She muttered. Cleo and I had told her about where we had seen Cora go the other day, and she's been a little… bitter ever since. Lewis rolled his eyes a little.

"No, I did not 'bring you another mermaid,' Rikki. But, you guys all know that I've been working with Max comparing the kind of mermaid that the three of you became on Mako Island to the kind that Cora and her sister became in their moon-pool. Well, we've been trying to figure out why you guys have different powers. You guys can manipulate the weather and the elements, Cora has her visions and telekinesis and her sister was a mind reader."

"What was her sister's other power?" Cleo asked.

"We don't know. She might have had a second one later on, but she died before one could develop. Which, as sad as it is, actually helped us in figuring out why you have two very different kinds of powers. From what Max and I can tell, Cora and her sister Mattie were really close, and really, really defensive of one another even before their transformation. After it, that got even stronger." Lewis started. I was curious as to where this was going…

"Uh… but so are the three of us, Lewis. And we became more defensive of one another after we became mermaids also." I said.

"I'm very glad you said that, Emma. Well, the reason why you guys and Cora and her sister got more defensive of each other after becoming mermaids, is that you shared a physical, chemical bond with each other and had a secret that you had to keep safe. The secret is supernatural, and so the need to keep it safe is deeper than just 'somebody finding out.' It's the need to stay together, almost as if you three were sisters. The three of you have that need, your powers reflect it. In the mermaid world, you three are known as Defenders. You would and have defended one another from everything that has come your way, whether it's been related to you being mermaids or not. You guys have had to face a TON of threats in the past few years, and the ability to manipulate the elements together is pretty formidable – speaking as somebody that you threw into a _tornado_, I think I would know…"

"We said we were sorry about that like a million times!" Cleo pouted and frowned a little, and I couldn't help but smirk. We had all felt pretty bad after the fact, but Lewis hadn't been hurt.

"I forgive you guys, you know that. But, Cora and her sister were sisters, obviously. They had a blood bond as well as the physical, chemical, supernatural bond that being mermaids brought. The two of them together were also Defenders, really intense Defenders because of the blood relationship. Cora was able to physically feel it when her sister was killed. But, after she died Cora didn't have anyone to 'defend' anymore, so to speak. She did know that you three existed because of the visions she has, but obviously didn't know you. But, since you were also mermaids, she still had a force inside of her compelling her to defend the mermaid secret. And when she started seeing Denman in her visions, the force just got stronger and stronger until it peaked. That's when she moved to Australia, and that's when her telekinesis developed."

"…So she moved here because she wanted the mermaid thing to be kept a secret? If that's the case why should it have even mattered to her – she didn't know us." Rikki sounded less biting than she had before – was that _hesitation_ I heard in her voice?

"Not exactly, Rikki; there's more. Even though Cora didn't know you, she still shared the mermaid bond with you. After her sister was gone, her energy became focused on you three completely. She saw what Denman was planning to do through her visions, and the urge to keep the three of you safe was, and is, about as important to her as breathing – even though she's not aware of it yet, she can certainly _feel_ it…"

"Wait… you haven't told her any of this yet?" I asked.

"We only came to these conclusions last night. I wanted to tell her today, but I haven't been able to catch her…"

I saw Rikki shift uncomfortably out of the corner of my eye but shrugged it off.

"So does that mean she's still a Defender, like us? And what does it have to do with her telekinesis?" I asked; I couldn't help it, science usually bored me to tears but what Lewis was saying was actually interesting – and I could follow it, for once.

"Glad you asked. No, guys. She's not a Defender anymore, now that she's here she's moved onto something different. Cora is now what in the mermaid world, is called a _Protector_. Meaning, to make it short, that in her mind her sole purpose is to keep the three of you out of harm's way. And it makes a world of difference when it comes to her powers. The three of you can control your powers at any time you want. Originally we only thought that Cora's telekinesis worked when she was afraid, but we were really wrong about that. Turns out that because of her status as a Protector, her powers only work in one direction – they only work when she's afraid for somebody else, in order to keep that person safe."

I saw Rikki stiffen next to me again and looked at her just in time to see her raise her eyebrows; typical Rikki.

"So what you're saying… is that her powers work for other people only. Not if she needs to help herself." She spoke slowly and curiously and I raised my own eyebrows – Rikki was showing interest in something _Lewis_ was saying? About _Cora_?

"Right," Lewis sighed a little and looked around at all of us, "So, that's it. I figured I would let you guys know, Cleo told me you might be interested in knowing when I found out…"

"We are, Lewis, and thank you for telling us!" I smiled a little bit I couldn't help but wonder why Cora was making friends with Dr. Denman; I was still really suspicious. I thought about mentioning it to Lewis right there, but I couldn't. He really likes this girl, and even if I told him he probably wouldn't want to believe it. He'd be blind to the fact that she was sneaking around with the enemy, just like he had been blind to Charlotte's nonsense.

"Not a problem, guys. I'd better go try and find Cora. I think she knows when her powers do and don't work, but to be honest it's better if she knows why soon."

"Yeah, well, thanks for the update McCartney, now if you'll excuse me I'm missing my show." Rikki smirked at Lewis and turned and left the kitchen, heading back for the living room.

"We'll see you around, Lewis! Thanks for coming over," Cleo walked Lewis to the door, and with a wave he was gone.

There were a few things that I was a little curious about now; Rikki's behavior, what Lewis had said, and where Cleo and I had seen Cora… But I couldn't concern myself with those things right now. I heard my phone ringing in my bedroom and headed in to answer it. I'm sure it was nothing - curiosity killed the cat, anyway.

-


	12. Making Things Right

**** A/N: Back to the normal rating! : ] **

**blitzholly, Rachel lee, Cleo-Sertori1234 ** - thank you guys so so much for reviewing! I'm really glad you like the story, and Rachel wow, haha. Another comment that made me blush! Thank you so much everybody!

For anyone who was concerned about why the last chapter would be considered a higher rating, I hope the last chapter wasn't too bad! I didn't think it was, I tried my best to keep it as toned down as possible but I wanted to give you guys a warning just in case! I know have younger readers and I don't want anyone accidentally reading something that makes them uncomfortable!

Thanks for reading and reviewing! Enjoy.

-

_**Meanwhile**_

Cora stood in front of her mirror and sighed. She ran a comb through the ends of her dark hair and frowned sadly before setting it back on top of her dresser and running her hand through her hair, flipping it out of her face and off to the other side of her head. She stared hard at her reflection and gently pressed her fingertips against the purplish brown bruise around her eye and the side of her bottom lip where Zane's high-school class ring had split it.

She closed her eyes and sighed. She had messed up. She had messed up badly, and this was the proof. Cora had known that the girls didn't like her and didn't trust her, but she thought that maybe with time they would accept her. She sat on the edge of her bed and lay back on it, staring up at the ceiling. The back of her head had a nasty lump from hitting the brick wall and it hurt a little bit, but nothing Tylenol didn't help.

Cora had faced the fact at hand; she had failed at belonging with the girls, fitting in as one of them. But she didn't have to fail at getting rid of Denman. The message from Zane had come in loud and clear – she wasn't welcome to be one of them, which she could have figured out on her own. But the urgency of last night's situation had made a very important realization click in her head. All this time, the answer to getting rid of Denman had been right in front of her. She was unable to have visions of her own future, and the reason why she hadn't been able to see the resolutions about Denman in her visions made perfect sense now:

She _was_ the resolution.

She cast her eyes to the side of her bedroom where some boxes that she had packed that morning were stacked up and gave a half-hearted smile. Her trip to Australia wouldn't be a complete failure, even if it were literally the last thing she did. A loud noise shook her out of her thoughts; it was her phone ringing. She pushed herself up and picked it up off of her bedside table to see who it was. It was Lewis. Cora bit her bottom lip softly. She had been avoiding his calls, texts and knocks for a whole day. It was rude and she hated it, but keeping the girls safe and happy meant making sure that they had Lewis, who had faithfully been there for them every step of the way. She loved his company but she couldn't let him see her this way; he'd ask questions, it might get the girls angry and Cora couldn't risk it. Seeing him after the decision she had made would be painful on its own.

She flopped back onto her bed and idly dropped the phone onto her stomach after it stopped ringing. Her eyes closed briefly before her body jolted a little, surprised by the vibrating of her phone on her stomach; she had a text. Opening her phone, she saw that it was from Lewis.

'_Answer, Cora. Won't stop until you do. I'm worried, the girls said they haven't heard from you either. – Lewis'_

She felt her bruised lip twitch slightly, almost into a smile before she stopped herself. She had to stop misunderstanding Lewis's niceness. 'No crushes' had been her rule for 5 years, and it couldn't stop being her rule now. It only reminded her of the things in life she wanted badly but wouldn't be able to have. He was just a nice person being a friend, and that's all he would ever be. Considering anything otherwise would only make her embarrass herself more. She put the phone down on the bed and pulled her textbook up from the floor and began to study for her last exam. One test left, and then she would fix what she had started once and for all.

*

It was a few hours later now, and Cora was in her living room packing some books into boxes. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door to her apartment. She froze and sat completely still on the living room floor – that was Lewis's knock. Maybe if she ignored it, he'd assume she wasn't home.

There were a few second of silence, then came a second knock. Cora stayed quiet in her spot on the rug and pulled her knees up to her chest.

"Cora? I know you're home, please open the door." She said nothing. A few more seconds of silence, and there was another knock. "Cora, I know where you hide the spare key out here. I'm coming in."

She froze again and her eyes grew wide – he was bluffing, right? How could he possibly know…? Then Cora remembered. On a night that he had walked her home from school, she had locked herself out of the house and had to use the spare key. No wonder he knew where it was. But maybe he was still bluffing?

The sound of the key going into the lock smashed her hopes of a bluff. She closed her eyes and sighed, letting her forehead rest on her knee. What a mess. She heard the door open and footsteps, and in a last ditch hope she wondered if maybe the age-old 'if I can't see them, they can't see me!' thing was true. It wasn't.

"Cora! What's the matter, why haven't you been answering your phone? I've been pretty worried I couldn't find you anywhere. I've got a lot to tell you about!" His voice was worried, but the usual excited Lewis could still be heard through the worry. Cora didn't budge. She had no clue what to say or even how to respond.

"Ohh… hey, Lewis…" Her voice was awkward and she half smirked a little, still not looking up at him. Lewis raised his eyebrows, confused. He sat down on the rug with her and took one look at her face before his own blanked.

"It looks like you have a lot to tell me, too. What _happened_ to you?!"

"It's not a big deal, I walked into an open freezer door in the kitchen at work last night…"

"Cora." Lewis's voice was stern, "Please don't lie to me. You weren't at work last night, Nate told me you were off. Did somebody do this to you?"

"No… Please don't worry about it, Lewis. Please. Everything is perfectly fine, I even figured out how to get rid of Denman!" She sounded hopeful; hopeful to change the subject. Lewis wasn't buying it. He wasn't even listening anymore.

"Tell me how this happened."

"Lewis… I can't. I can't… they need you."

"What do you mean? Did one of the girls do this to you?!"

"No! No, absolutely not… no… Look it's not a big deal. Your messages said you had figured out something important with Max; what did you want to tell me?"

"CORA." Lewis was stunned, "This is a VERY big deal. Don't change the subject, please."

"Lewis, there are more important things at hand right now…" She muttered and picked herself up off of the floor, standing against the fireplace. Lewis stared up at her hard for a few seconds and was quiet. He had let this go too long, and he wasn't going to sit around and be passive and let another girl slip past him. For a second, and just for the second, he was going to put her black eye and split lip on the back burner.

"Cora, would you want to go get dinner sometime?"

She stared blankly at a minute and then sparked to attention and she headed across the room into the kitchen.

"Oh… duh, sorry," She pulled the refrigerator door open and looked inside, "What are you hungry for? I didn't cook tonight because I'm not too hungry, but I can warm up leftovers for you if you want. There's a ton of chili, lasagna…"

Lewis had sat on the floor for a second, a little shocked before getting up and following after her, shaking his head in disbelief. She didn't realize that he was right behind her, and when she turned around to face where she thought he was still sitting in the living room she jumped a little and was face to face with him.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you…" He took a small step back and reached behind her and gently closed the fridge, sighing quietly, "Cora, that's not really what I meant."

"Oh. Well! Let me know what you want and I'm sure I can put something together." She smiled brightly. Lewis's face blanked a little and his eyebrows raised slightly – he realized that she really didn't get it. He smirked a little and shook his head slightly in disbelief; and all this time he had been worried that he was being too obvious. He looked hard at her face and reached out gently and tipped her chin so that he could get a better look at the bruising. This entire situation had gotten way out of hand. The only good thing was, that at this point he really had nothing else to lose. He sighed and tilted her head to face him and leaned down carefully and without hesitating anymore, he kissed her. After a few seconds, he pulled away and smirked shyly at her shocked expression.

"You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that," He sighed and put his palm to his forehead and pushed his blonde hair back over his head, "Cora, is this why you've been avoiding me?" He gestured to her face. She still couldn't say anything and merely nodded. Lewis sighed again and shut his eyes. There was no point in telling her about his and Max's discovery, he knew she already knew how her own body and mind worked. There was something wrong going on here, and he wasn't going to be blind to it anymore, "You might not want to tell me, but I'm going to find out who did that to you." He set the spare key he had used on the counter and walked out of the apartment, leaving Cora standing next to the fridge wide-eyed and motionless.

She let her eyes wander to the box that she had been packing and sighed, squeezing her eyes shut. She had to work fast, for the girls' sake and now for Lewis's as well.

-

_**The Next Day – Rikki**_

Crap. This was bad; this was really bad.

I was wrong. I will admit it this one time, I was wrong. I had been wrong about Cora this whole time. This whole time I had been convinced that she was another Charlotte, ready to kill us or give us up to Dr. Denman the second she had us alone. All along, what I didn't realize was that she _couldn't_ hurt us even if she wanted to. She was here to help us all along.

I paced back and forth in front of Zane's dorm building, waiting for him to come out. I hadn't felt this worked up in a while. Last week I told Zane about Emma and Cleo seeing Cora with Denman, and I had known he was upset. I _may_ have told him a little hastily, and he had mentioned that he would have a talk with Cora to see what she was all about. At the time, I didn't think too much about it and in fact had told him to be careful since I had believed that Cora was actually dangerous. I know Zane has a temper and I know the kid feels like he needs to protect us even though we can protect ourselves for the most part. But he has a good heart and I love him, and if talking to her helped him sleep better at night then I didn't have a problem with it.

I wrung my hands a little and sighed; I didn't know for certain what had happened, maybe I felt guilty for no reason? Maybe Zane hadn't even met Cora yet and I had nothing to feel bad about at all… besides being maybe a little mean and burning her once. But yesterday when Lewis told us he hadn't seen Cora in a full day, my nerves kicked into gear. The two of them were like awkward puppies and were together all the time. If he hadn't seen her, something was weird.

The sound of the door clicking open made me pick my head up and I looked over to see Zane coming out and heading down the stairs towards me. He had his arms out and pulled me to him, giving me a kiss on the top of my head. Nothing mushy in public, that's the way I liked to keep it. But I looked up at him quickly, I had to cut to the chase.

"Zane… we need to talk someplace in private. Now."

"Uh oh," He smirked, and I could tell he thought I was going to have another tantrum. Who knew, I might. It depended upon what he told me, "What did I do now?"

"That's what I have to find out. Come on…" I took him by his arm and we head across his school's campus to the athletic track which was thankfully empty right now. We sat down on a bench off to the side of the track and I sighed. I hated admitting I was wrong.

"Rikki, what's the matter?"

"Zane, I have to know something. You said you were going to talk to Cora – did you do that yet?" I asked, trying hard to keep my voice level.

"Yeah, I took care of her. I don't think she's gonna give you guys trouble anymore." He replied, but then I saw that smirk. That typical _Zane_ smirk.

"What did you do?"

"Told her not to step out of line, and I gave her a little coercion to listen to me."

I squeezed my eyes shut. I had a feeling that I knew that it meant he did more than just talk to her.

"What coercion, Zane, what did you do?!"

"Whoa, Rikki, easy. I saw that chick lifting her hands up like she was going to try that telekinetic crap and hit me with something, so I knocked her around a little and that kept her from doing anything, and I waved my gun a little. Not a big deal, but I think it was enough to scare her off."

I froze. _Ohhh_, crap. Ohhhhhh _crap_. This is a nightmare; a complete nightmare.

"You _hit_ her?!" I groaned.

"Well… yeah, she was about to—"

"Zane. She wasn't going to do anything to you, she couldn't have. I was wrong about her. Really, really wrong."

"What are you talking about? I thought you said—"

"Lewis came by yesterday. He and Max figured out how she's different from us. Zane… she couldn't have hurt you even if she wanted to. She had no way to defend herself with her power. She actually, legitimately wants to help us. She needs to, actually. Her whole purpose has kinda… been devoted to keeping us safe." I muttered, too ashamed to even look at him. I finally sighed and picked my head up and looked hard at him, "Did it hurt her too bad?"

"I… don't know, I didn't exactly stick around. Really…? Are you sure?"

"Lewis has never lied to us before, he's got no reason to. He has no idea we didn't trust her and outright didn't like her because of it. We didn't tell him because he's practically in love with the girl."

"Oh… my god… What did I _do_? What the hell happens now, then, Rikki?!"

"We have to go talk to Cleo and Emma." I sighed and stood up, reaching for his hand. I had a lot of explaining to do.

-

_**Meanwhile – Cora**_

Last night had been busy, and I hadn't gotten a whole lot of sleep but it didn't matter. I headed back to my condo after my last midterm this morning to take care of a few final things. The boxes of personal items that I had been packing up all night I stacked into the living room so they'd be easy enough to find and get rid of. I didn't know if I would be coming back or not, but I was prepared for anything that may happen, and I was ready to make things right after causing so many problems over the past several months that I had been in Australia.

I looked around the apartment for anything I might need. I figured that where I was going, I probably wouldn't need a whole lot. I left my cell phone on the dresser in my bedroom and grabbed the most recent picture of Mattie and I. I tucked it into my wristlet and took one last look around my now fairly empty condo and smiled a little. I knew I was doing the right thing; this was what I was meant to do all along. It's just too bad I'd been too dumb to figure it out until now, which sucks because it's so _obvious_.

I switched the lights off and left, heading out. I walked straight and quickly, and before I knew it I was standing at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the entrance to Linda Denman's lab. With a sigh to brace myself, I hurried up the stairs and without wasting any more time, went inside. Thankfully, Denman was in her office so I didn't have to look too far. I knocked, and she seemed surprised to see me; she should have been, I wasn't scheduled to be in the lab today.

"Cora, sweetie what are you doing here? And what happened to your _face_?"

I was almost sad that in a few minutes, she wouldn't be being so nice anymore. I smirked a little, but I didn't want to waste more time on unimportant things.

"Heh… You should see the other guy… Uh. Dr. Denm—Linda, you've been telling me about something big that you thought your team was on to a few years ago, that you think might be back?"

"Yes, what about it?"

"You were right. I have something you might wanna see." I went to her desk and sat down at the chair opposite from hers and carefully pulled the flower vase on the desk closer to me. I bit my lip a little and moved the flowers inside aside with my fingers, and dipped my fingers into the water.

-

**A/N**: Uh oh, this can't be good! Cliffhanger, haha. Hope you guys like it so far! Reviews are welcome and make me super happy : ] Take care!


	13. Good Lies, Bad Lies

***** Sorry for reposting this, I noticed that I just didn't finish a sentence for some reason, so I edited it and reuploaded! All fixed!**

**A/n**: Wow! I love the response guys, thanks so much! I appreciate any feedback, positive or negative! Whatever you have to say, let me hear it. I responded to all the reviewers of the last chapter through PM, so I'll just get right into the story. Thanks so much everybody, here is chapter 13 : ] Oh, and I came up with my own song for this chapter, haha. "If You Only Knew" by Shinedown. If you haven't heard it, listen here:

http : // www . playlist . com /searchbeta/tracks#if%20you%20only%20knew%20shinedown

Copy and paste that whole line into your URL bar and get rid of the spaces. It's one of my favorite songs right now, and I think it fits this chapter! The first track doesn't work, but the second one on the page does! : ]

-

_**A Few Hours Later**_

"All right, Ms. Dean. You've told us some things earlier on, we're just going to verify them with this polygraph test, okay?"

"Okay."

"First, some simple sample questions to calibrate the machine to your body's responses. Only answer yes for now, even if the answer is obviously false. First question: Your full name is Cora Reagan Dean?"

"Yes."

"Is the sky blue?"

"Yes."

"Are we currently in the city of London, England?"

"Yes."

"Are you 50 years old?"

"Yes." Cora glanced sideways at the machine after giving each of her answers to see how the machine scribbled across the long feed of paper. She was very, very careful to distinguish the difference between how they moved when she told the truth, and when she lied. She sighed quietly and braced herself. This was the first test to prove to herself that she could help Cleo, Emma and Rikki. If it was to help them, she could manipulate this machine.

"All right. Now, onto the important stuff. Now you may answer yes or no, Ms. Dean, we're going to verify that you weren't lying to us earlier. For the first real question: You told us that you are the only mermaid in Australia – is that true?"

"Yes." Cora stared briefly at the machine and twitched one of her fingers unnoticeably, making the machine record her blatant lie as a truth.

"You said that you had visions of three other mermaids here in Australia a few years ago, but since you have been here you have discovered that they are no longer mermaids, is that true?"

"Yes." Another flinch of her finger. She could do this, all she had to do was keep the girls in the front of her mind.

"Have you met the three people who were mermaids since being here?"

"No." Lie.

"Aside from visions of the future and telekinetic abilities, do you have any other special powers?"

"No." This was one answer she didn't have to fix, that much was true.

"But, you said that as a mermaid, you have the capability to sense other mermaids. Is this an ability that all mermaids have?"

"Yes." That wasn't total bullcrap, Cora thought. If there were more, she'd be able to see them, but she didn't know if there had ever been mermaids with the same powers she had. But she did what she had to do, and said what she had to say.

"You have poked around on Mako Island and say that the moon-pool there is no longer active. Is _that_ true?"

"Yes." Another lie.

"You also told us why. You said that when the three mermaids lost their powers in it forever, the moon-pool's powers were also gone forever. True or no?"

"Yes."

"Fascinating. You said your own moon-pool, the one that changed you, was destroyed as well - by construction. Is this true?"

"Yes." Lie. But Cora was going to keep Denman away from the moon-pools she knew about, and lead her astray… Very, very _far_ astray.

"All right. Now this is what I'm most interested in, Ms. Dean. You said that you have had visions of two more people in another still active moon-pool becoming mermaids. Is _this_ true?"

"Yes."

"Okay, now for the last question: You said that you saw where this moon-pool was. You gave us the location of somewhere throughout the Hudson Bay in Northern Canada. Is this true, Cora? Is there another moon-pool, and more mermaids?

"Yes."

"And is it in the Hudson Bay, like you have told us?"

"Yes."

Linda Denman's smile widened and her teeth flashed elegantly, pleased. She turned to Jerry, her top assistant and her smile grew.

"Jerry? Please see about making the travel arrangements as soon as possible. We don't have any time to waste," She grinned at him and he nodded, smiling as well and unfolded his arms and left the small, dim room, leaving Cora and Denman alone.

"Very glad to see you've told us the truth, Ms. Dean, very glad. Seems that I have found you a place on my team sooner than I had thought, though not exactly in the position I had anticipated," She opened the bottom drawer on her file cabinet and pulled a packet forms from a folder in the back. Coming back to her desk, she sat down and pushed the packet across the desk to Cora and set a pen on top of it, "I understand you're in the country by yourself, living alone, putting yourself through school. I understand that your immediate family has all passed away, but what about anybody else? Aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents? Is there anybody else who may… try to reach you?" Denman chose her words carefully, but Cora knew what she meant. Denman wanted to know if anybody was going to come looking for her, or report her missing. Cora smiled sadly and her face faltered a little before she replied; she knew what she had been getting herself into, and she was ready for what would come. It was the right thing to do, she could feel it in every inch of her body.

"No, ma'am. There's no one else."

"Well, then, in that case! I'm going to give you the unique opportunity of helping me revolutionize the scientific community. Would you like that, Cora?"

"Of course." Her voice was quiet, but she pushed a slight smile onto her face and glanced down at the packet quickly.

"That's what I thought. Then what I need from you, is to go through and sign your name in all the places that I've highlighted for you. I know it's a lot to read, but you don't really need to read it; it's quiet general," Denman's please Cheshire cat grin widened, "So, I'll just leave you to take care of these and when you're all done, just come out and meet Jerry and I in the lobby and we'll get you… suited up." Denman pushed herself up from the desk and with one last smile, left the office and closed the door behind her.

Cora already knew what these forms would say, but she let herself read through them as she signed anyway. She bit her lip slightly and sighed, her eyes locking over the words attentively; she was signing her life away. With each signature, Cora was giving up the rights to her own life and handing those rights over to Linda Denman. She was going to be an experiment, a project. She flipped to the last page with the final highlighted space, and quickly signed her name one last time without hesitation.

This was what she was meant to do, and what she should have done a lot sooner. She smiled hopefully and set the pen back on Denman's desk and stood up, heading for the lobby where she found Jerry standing with his arms folded, as usual, and Dr. Denman perched on the arm of the couch.

"Done already?" Denman questioned, her voice clearly trying to hide how thrilled she was, more than likely taking the quickness for Cora not reading the forms – just as she had hoped for.

"Yep."

"Perfect!" Linda flipped through the packet briefly and seeing all the highlighted spaces filled, she smiled and handed the packet to Jerry, "All right then, let's go downstairs and get you all suited up," She turned Cora and walked with her down a long hallway, taking her down a flight of stairs, "Tell me, Cora – do you have any medicine-related allergies? You know… Penicillin, iodine… morphine?"

"No, Dr. Denman."

Linda Denman grinned, and pushed open the door at the bottom of the stairs.

"_Perfect_."

-

_**Meanwhile – Cleo**_

Emma and I had barely gotten the door to our apartment shut once we got in from class before it burst in again and Rikki barged in, toting Zane behind her. I sighed quietly and rolled my eyes; I really hoped they weren't fighting again – and I really, _REALLY_ hoped that if they _were_ fighting, they wouldn't do it here. I wanted a nap.

"Cleo, is Emma here too?"

"Yeah, Rikki, we just got back a few minutes ago. She's in her room." I responded and yawned a little. I'm so tired, I can hardly stand it.

"Good…." She muttered and headed off to Emma's room, leaving Zane to sit down by me at the kitchen table. A few seconds later Rikki was back dragging Emma into the kitchen, "All right, we have to talk to you two."

"Are you breaking up again? I don't want you breaking anything else in this apartment Rikki Chadwick." Emma smirked, but I could tell she was half serious after the 'photo-breaking' disaster during Rikki and Zane's last argument. Rikki smirked back slightly bitterly.

"No, we are not 'breaking up again,' Emma. This is important." She sighed and I raised an eyebrow. I could tell something was really bothering her, which worried me; it took a lot for Rikki to get this way, so I piped up.

"What's the matter, Rikki?"

She sighed and continued pacing around the floor.

"I… was wrong."

Whoa. I didn't know what she was talking about yet, but these were three words that I didn't hear out of Rikki's mouth too often.

"What about?" Emma asked.

"About Cora. I was wrong about Cora. All the stuff I've told you about her hasn't really been justified at all. I jumped to some serious conclusions way too fast, and Zane and I made a pretty big mistake."

"Hey, slow down. What do you mean?" I was curious, I had to ask. I had felt all along that Cora wasn't a monster, even though seeing her with Denman had made me a little uncomfortable. But after what Lewis had told us yesterday, I brushed the discomfort off. I trusted Lewis, and I knew he knew what he was talking about. Rikki sighed again before she started talking.

"She's not like Charlotte, she never was. Lewis was right, as much as I hate to admit it. She's only wanted to help this whole time, and like he said, she couldn't hurt another person even if she wanted to. But this whole time, I convinced myself that she was evil because that's just what happened last time…"

She was rambling a little bit now, so I tried to get her back on track.

"What mistake did you two make?" I glanced curiously at Zane, whose face only made me more nervous – he looked guilty.

"Ugh. I might have told Zane a little too soon about you two seeing Cora at Denman's lab. It didn't hit me until after Lewis talked to us that she probably wasn't hanging out with Denman in order to give us up, just to find out what she knows. Well, Zane here got kind of upset and decided he was going to go talk to her and tell her to back off."

"…and?" Emma asked curiously. I looked at Zane expectantly. He wouldn't look up at any of us, but he had his palm to his forehead and he stared off to the other side of the kitchen emptily.

"And… in addition to telling her to back off, he also smacked her and put a gun in her face."

I froze. That had NOT been I was expecting. I didn't know Cora all that well but for some reason, what I had heard made me really, really mad. Probably more made than I have been since Charlotte left. I felt my hand smack down on the table and whipped my head to face Zane; the smacking sound made him jump a little.

"You _what_?!"

Everybody was silenced for a minute by my outburst and I was slightly embarrassed but still upset.

"Whoa… easy, Cleo. I was mad too, but in Zane's defense, he didn't know she can't use her powers against others, only in their favor. He thought she was about to try to mess him up. It was my fault for telling him something that I didn't even know was true." Rikki sighed again and I relaxed a little. She might have prompted it but Zane still hit a girl. Call me old fashioned but that's never, _ever_ okay.

"Well, is she okay, Zane?" Emma asked. Zane shifted in his chair and sat up a little before speaking for the first time since he got here.

"I… don't really know. I hit her in the face, but she also hit her head. I didn't really stick around, but she wasn't unconscious when I left and she was still talking." He said. I could hear that he felt bad, that he regretted doing it. Good, he _should_ feel bad!

"Then, it looks like we owe Cora an apology – a really BIG apology," Emma started, hopping off the counter and unfolding her arms. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and flipped it open, "I'll see if she can come by, since we're all here now." She pressed a few buttons and held the phone up to her ear. I watched Emma's face patiently. Emma was still and quiet, and after several seconds her face changed a little and she spoke.

"Cora, it's Emma. We all need to talk to you, so please call us back as soon as you get this message, all right? Take care, bye." And she hung up.

"Voicemail?" Rikki asked. Emma nodded.

"We'll keep trying. We made a mistake, and this girl deserves an apology."

"What about Lewis?" I asked. He was going to be livid when he found out what Zane had done. Lewis was far from being the scrawny nerd he had been a few years ago, but I still didn't know if I could picture him in a fight with anybody. But if there was a time for me to see that, it would probably be because of this.

"We might not want to tell him until _after_ we talk to her. If she's not mad, she can probably keep him from being _as_ mad as he would be otherwise." Emma muttered and sighed, slipping her phone back into her pocket.

"Yeah, maybe…" I sighed and looked back at Rikki, who was tugging the base of her ponytail nervously.

"I'm really sorry about this, guys. I started a mess, is what I did."

"You did. But, we can still fix it, and we will. Simple conversation has ended wars, Rikki. I'm sure Cora will forgive us for acting like this." Emma gave a little hopeful smile and I yawned again and pursed my lips. She was right about conversations going a long way, and I knew that Cora would forgive us. I glared at Zane out of the corner of my eye. She wasn't a monster, but this whole situation _had_ gotten way out of hand.

_**The Next Morning – Lewis**_

She didn't want to tell me who hit her, all right, that was fine. I said I would find out for myself, and I had. The process had been pretty simple, actually. Cora had said 'no' when I had asked her if it were one of the girls. But I _did_ know that it had something to do with them – she didn't want to tell me because she didn't want me to be upset with them. So I had to think… if it wasn't the girls, who was the next closest person? Who had a temper, who was way too over-protective?

_Zane_.

Zane Bennett, Rikki's boyfriend. We had had problems in the past, but this was over the top. If the girls didn't think I knew that they were less than happy about Cora's presence, they had to think I was completely blind. I wasn't blind, when I brought Cora to them I knew they'd have issues getting used to her at first. But I had thought that soon enough they would see the honest good that she was trying to do. I was wrong.

Cora was back to not answering her phone, and when I stopped by her condo today I came from the back of the building and saw that her lights were off. I figured that she wasn't home and was busy somewhere else, but that didn't mean I couldn't have a 'talk' with him on my own. If she had known I was going to go find him, she'd tell me not to anyway. It didn't even matter at this point.

I was mad; I was _really_ mad. I knew Zane would be spending the weekend with Rikki, probably at the girls' apartment. It's Saturday morning, so I decided to head over there to give him a wake-up call. This had gotten ridiculous. What the hell ever happened to trusting people?!

As much as I studied them, I would never understand how mermaids worked.

-

**A/n**: Uh oh. Lewis is ready to beat someone down. What's going to happen to Cora? Review, my lovelies! And take care : ]


	14. Ticket to Fame

**A/N**: Thanks for the feedback! As always I appreciate it, I will be responding to all signed reviews from the last chapter through PMs but for the person who signed as rachel lee – thank you so much! I'm glad that you still like the story and I hope that I don't disappoint you or any of the rest of the readers : ] Just a few chapters to go, guys! I'm sorry I didn't get this chapter up earlier. I meant to finish editing it the night before last and post it yesterday morning, but ended up at the doctor yesterday, which made me feel even worse ;\ Went to ANOTHER doctor today, but blah. This is long overdue! But anyway here is the next chapter!

**** Also**, I've made an important addition to my profile, if you haven't seen it yet I'll repeat it here! : ] Any author that is kind enough to take the time out to read and review any one of my stories, I will return it by reading and reviewing one of their stories. Feedback is what makes this such a beautiful site! Take care, everybody!

-

Lewis hurried up the walkway of the apartment complex where Emma, Cleo and Rikki lived. It was late morning by the time he got there, and he could hear Cleo's voice coming from the garden and barbeque area from around the back of the building and smirked. That cut out the time of taking the stairs up to the 3rd floor. He rounded the corner and was thankful to find that his friends were the only ones back there, having breakfast outside.

The minute that Emma saw Lewis her face dropped and she pressed her palm to the forehead.

"Good _lord_…" She muttered quietly and continued leafing through the magazine to the side of her eggs and toast. Cleo, who sat to the side of her, perked her head up and smiled at first when she saw her lifelong friend, but then her face faltered a little bit when she saw the expression on Lewis's face.

"Ohhh, here it comes."

"Do you think he found out, Cleo?"

"Of _course_ he has, look at his face. Have you ever seen Lewis's face look like _that_?"

"Good point. Well, here we go…" Emma sighed a smirked a little, shaking her head and returned to her magazine. Cleo propped her elbows up on the table and watched as Lewis walked toward where Rikki and Zane were standing up near the grill table making their plates.

Lewis approached Zane, who had his back turned to him, but Rikki was able to see Lewis coming just in time to see Lewis put his hand on Zane's shoulder, pull him so that they faced each other, and punch him in the face. Zane stumbled and fell backwards a little, catching himself on the table. He was caught quite off guard and was still for a second before adjusting himself, standing up straight. He put his hand to his jaw and rubbed it, flexing it a little bit to work out the punch. Lewis stood firmly in his spot, seething. He wasn't exactly used to punching people in the face, but the soreness in his knuckles was not something he was concerned with in at the moment.

"I deserved that." Zane muttered, Rikki coming forward to stand beside him.

"You're _damn right_, you did! What the hell is the matter with you, Zane?!" Lewis retorted bitterly, wrinkling his forehead and cutting his eyes hard at Zane.

"So you've seen Cora, Lewis? Is she… you know… is she feeling okay?" Rikki spoke up quietly, staring down at her feet. Lewis sighed and looked at her.

"You suddenly care? Why, feeling _guilty_, Rikki…?" Lewis raised his eyebrows, but then shut his eyes and sighed, "I'm sorry, that wasn't _totally_ called for. But to answer your question, yes, I've seen her. I haven't spoken to her since then; She's not answering her phone, and it doesn't look like she's home. I tried asking her who did that to her face, but she wouldn't say. It was easy enough to figure out, though…" He started, and then noticed Emma and Cleo sitting at the table staring at him and blushed a little, and nodded in their direction, "Emma. Cleo."

"Well, good morning to you too, Lewis." Emma said with a smirk, making Cleo giggle before turning through another page of her magazine, Cleo glancing at it with her. Lewis, Zane and Rikki head over to the table and sat down around it, joining Cleo and Emma. Zane rubbed his jaw and glanced sheepishly at Lewis out of the corner of his eye.

"Not a bad hit, McCartney. I didn't know you had it in you."

"You know what they say, an eye for an eye. A hit for a hit in this case, I figure it doesn't matter who delivers it…" Lewis muttered. Rikki bit her lip, seeing that Lewis was still upset and spoke up.

"Lewis… you should know that this was my fault. Zane didn't exactly know what he was doing… In his defense, he only hit her because he thought she was going to use her powers against him. He didn't know that Cora couldn't have hurt him." She said, looking down. It was hard enough to admit she was wrong, but guilt was one feeling she didn't handle well. It was strange and foreign, and she didn't like it. This was taking some getting used to.

"Why didn't you _tell_ him she couldn't have hurt him?" Lewis asked in disbelief.

"Well… because I had been telling him I didn't trust her from the start - the things she'd said and been doing _before_ you came over and told us about the differences between us and Cora. I kind of jumped the gun, Lewis, and I'm really sorry about it."

Lewis was silent for a minute. He was mad at how crazy this situation had gotten, yes. He was mad that Rikki hadn't even tried trusting Cora, yes. Was he livid that Zane had gotten involved the way that he did? Yes. But no matter what he had to admit that these four people sitting around him were his best friends, and despite what had happened, it had only been done because it was thought to be for the best - even though it hurt somebody he cared quite a lot about.

"Look… I'm not going to tell you that it's fine, Rikki. I'm not going to tell you 'I told you so' about Cora. I know that you're not the quickest to trust people, and I know that you were all a little paranoid after the Charlotte thing, but I wish you would have had a little more faith in me that I wasn't bringing you a killer. That being said, I know that you guys are in a dangerous situation, and I can understand why you're paranoid," He looked around at a table of very guilty faces, and suddenly felt a pang of guilt of his own. Maybe he was being too harsh – he wasn't exactly an angry person on a regular basis, and he knew they weren't used to seeing him like this. Besides, Cora would be mortified if she knew he'd shown up and lectured everyone, not to mention punched Zane in the face. He decided to ease off, "But she's not mad, so I'm not going to stay mad either. There are more important things to worry about right now."

"Just so you know, Lewis… we really do all feel awful about what happened. We're going to try to make it up to her – Emma is going to teach me how to bake cookies, and we're going to bring them over to her when we go apologize - as soon as she calls us back. Right, Emma?" Cleo smiled hopefully and glanced at Emma.

"Yes… but I'm going to be the one putting them in the oven this time, Cleo," Emma smirked and Cleo blushed slightly, and Emma looked up at Lewis, "She's right though, Lewis. We feel terrible, but we're going to do our best to make this right. We know that we've been way too paranoid… and we're sorry we didn't trust you at first. But you remember, the whole thing with Charlotte…"

"Okay, I _get_ it, I get it. Apologies accepted, I know you all had reasons to be especially careful this time around. But now we've gotta move past it. You said you called her?" Lewis asked.

"Yeah, Emma called her yesterday… we had to leave a voicemail, though, she didn't pick up." Rikki said. She seemed a little more relaxed now that Lewis had gotten his rant out of his system, but she wouldn't feel entirely guilt free for a while – at least not until they saw Cora for themselves.

"At least she's not just ignoring my calls…" Lewis muttered and rubbed his temples. Cleo beamed devilishly from the other side of the table.

"Why would she just ignore you? Did you do something not very Lewis-like?" She asked with a grin. Lewis sighed and shut his eyes, rubbing his forehead.

"Cleo, not now…"

"It's fine, Lewis, it's not like we don't all know you like the girl. You're not great at keeping your _own_ secrets, just ours." Rikki smirked, leaning forward past Zane to look at Lewis. Lewis frowned slightly and rolled his eyes.

"You'd better be glad I decide to keep yours at all, Rikki. Yes, I like her, all right? Not a big deal."

"Big deal!" Cleo giggled and rolled her eyes, "Just tell us why you would think she's just ignoring _your_ calls. Come on, I'd end up making you tell me later anyway. You're probably over-reacting anyway, it's pretty obvious she likes you back."

"I kissed her, told her I was going to find out who hit her even though she didn't want me to know, and left."

"Well? What did she say!" Cleo asked. Lewis groaned. The downside to having a girl as a best friend was the love of gossip. These were the kinds of things that Lewis preferred to keep to himself – or just to Cleo, not a table full of people even if they were his friends too.

"Nothing. I didn't exactly give her a whole lot of time to, I kind of just…left. But," Lewis added quickly, hoping to change the topic as soon as he could, "when I first got there she did mention that she had figured out some way to get rid of Denman."

"What's her plan, then?" Rikki questioned. She was glad this mess would be over soon, and was ready to redeem herself at this point. All she needed was to be told what she had to do, and she'd do it.

"I… didn't exactly find out. I ended up distracting her when I asked her to go out with me, and then… you know, the whole kissed-her-and-left thing." Lewis muttered. His cheeks were pink, so he kept his head down a little. Zane, still nursing his swelling jaw, smirked a little and raised an eyebrow.

"Not exactly the greatest at dealing with the ladies are you, _Casanova_?" He questioned and chuckled a little. Rikki elbowed him roughly in the ribs and glared at him. He shut up instantly. Emma brought the conversation back on track.

"Well, at least that means we've got a plan. I guess we'll just have to wait to hear from her to hear about it." She said.

"Don't worry, she'll get back to you guys soon. This is going to end, finally." Lewis sighed and squeezed his eyes shut. Things were finally going to calm down.

-

_**Meanwhile**_

The rounds of testing were only just beginning at Denman's lab. Denman had wanted to see proof of Cora's abilities, and to see just how strong they were. Cora, in the state of mind that she was protecting Emma, Cleo and Rikki, was able to freely manipulate her telekinesis even though it was mentally exhausting. Denman had asked her to move objects of all shapes and sizes from one end of a room with an Olympic sized swimming pool, to the other side, at varying speeds. For Cora, it was somewhat of a learning experience. She had known that she could physically feel things from her visions, but using her powers for hours on end non-stop had made her arms and back so sore that she had resorted to sitting on the tile floor as she moved the objects – almost as if she had physically moved them herself. She was exhausted, but as the orders from Denman were given, she obeyed them. The faster Denman had what she wanted, the faster she would move them all to the Hudson Bay and be far, far away from the Australian mermaids.

It was dark out now; Cora could see the sky slowly turn black through a small window near the ceiling. She could feel her eyelids getting heavy, and as she turned her wrist slightly to set down a crate almost as big as bedroom at home in California, she heard Denman speak.

"Very good, Cora, excellent. All right, come with me." She flashed her brilliant smile and before Cora had the chance to pull herself up off of the white tile floor, she felt a strong arm on her upper arm yank her up quickly into a standing position. She blinked out of surprised and rubbed her already sore arm and looked up to see one of the lab's more intimidating security guards behind her. She smiled nervously at him and quickly turned to follow Denman only to find that the man did not let go of her, and instead held her by the arm and walked her out of the room after Denman.

Linda led them into a room that Cora had seen before; it was the room full of tanks that she had been shown on one of her first visits to the lab, the room where she had originally seen three empty tanks. However, two of the empty tanks had been removed and only one remained at the back of the room, now. Dr. Denman turned and faced Cora and the security guard, giving them her deceiving smile.

"You just wait here for a minute, I've just got to go grab Jerry!" Denman smiled and walked to the other side of the room and pushed through a swinging door. Cora closed her eyes and strained to hear, blocking out all other sounds from around her. She heard the clicking of Linda's heels for a short distance and then heard her voice. "How many morphine tablets have you come up with?" Denman's voice was far less sunny now.

"Four or five; I can get more." Cora heard Jerry's voice, now.

"Get some. This is fine for now, but this kid's ability is dangerous. We're going to keep her as sedated as possible. It'll make my job a hell of a lot easier, anyway… Come on, Jerry, let's get this show on the road."

Cora sighed and bit her lip slightly – she was going to be drugged. She heard the clicking of her heels coming closer to them again and within a few second, Denman pushed her way back through the swinging metal door with Jerry following close behind her holding a small orange pill bottle. Her bright, sunny smile had been plastered onto her face once again.

"All right then! Cora, dear, you seem a little stiff after our test. We want you to be able to have a full night's rest, so we've got something here that will help you sleep. Jerry?" She smiled brightly and Jerry popped open the bottle and shook out two white oval tablets into his hand and handed them off to Cora. Denman held out a water bottle to her, and Cora took it carefully from her. She peered down at the tablets in her hand; she knew what they were, but she couldn't give off any indication that she had heard what she had just told Jerry. She pushed a slight smile onto her tired face.

"Thanks, Dr. Denman." The security guard had let go of her upper arm but stood rigidly towering over her just a few inches away. She couldn't hide them under her tongue; Cora knew Denman was smart enough to know all the tricks, and it was impossible to keep pills hidden under your tongue when you're carrying on a conversation with somebody. She braced herself; if this is what she had to do, then this was what she had to do. She had nothing to lose. She unscrewed the bottle and popped both tablets into her mouth and took a sip of the water, swallowing them quickly.

"No problem at all, dear, really. Now, let me show you some of the projects down here that we've been working on…" Linda Denman put her hand on Cora's back and led her through the maze of tanks. She pointed at the various marine animals in each of them, giving her lengthy explanations, waiting for the time released sedative to kick in. After only about 10 minutes, Denman could see that Cora was having trouble responding to her, and even having trouble standing. She allowed her explanation to trail off and her smile grew. She turned and looked at the security guard and nodded at Cora, whose brown eyes were almost completely shut lost to the effects of the pills. He nodded once in understanding and bent down slightly, picking the girl up and following Denman as she led the way through the maze of tanks to the very back of the room. She stopped in front of the only empty one, about 10 feet long, 5 feet wide and 5 feet high, filled completely with water save for the 6 inches of "breathing room" at the top. There was a step-ladder along the side of the tank, which the security guard carefully climbed onto still balancing the girl in his arms. He glanced down at Denman, who gave him a signal nod and he carefully lowered the girl down into the water, letting her body sink down into the glass tank.

Within a few seconds, Cora's red sweater and jeans were replaced with the silver scales of her tail. Denman smiled, pleased, and went behind the tank pulling the top up and closed the tank, pulling the locks down on the top of the glass tank. When the final lock was secured she stepped back away from the tank and admired her work, watching her sleeping intern-turned-project settle at the bottom of the tank. This was her ticket to fame.

She turned and started walking away, followed by Jerry and the security guard. Without a second glance, Denman flipped off the overhead lights and was gone for the night.

-

_**The Next Day – Lewis**_

I bounced my pen on my notebook and looked around the classroom. Class is half way over, and Cora still isn't here. The seat next to me where she usually sits is empty, but I was passed the panic that she was just avoiding me. I had scanned the classroom at least a dozen times since the start of class, but she isn't here. Something was very, very strange about this; she has _never_ missed a day of class.

Maybe she's sick? That would explain why no one can get a hold of her. Well, if she doesn't call me or the girls by the end of the day, I'll head over there tomorrow. The sooner we can get this Denman mess taken care of, the sooner we can go back to our "normal" lives. Well… at least our Denman-free lives. I can only hope that when it's all over, Cora will still wants to be part of my Denman-free life after everything that my friends, mostly _Rikki_, have put her through, but I was taking my chances. Things are looking up, the girls are ready to make things right, and I'm ready to see Denman leave. This is great! I just wish it could happen sooner. I should have stopped and asked her about her plan to get rid of Dr. Denman before I left, but it didn't matter. She'd be explaining it to all of us soon enough.

Class ended, and one last time before everyone got up and left I managed to scan the room, just to be sure. Cora definitely wasn't here, so she must be home sick. I shrugged and picked up my backpack and head up the stairs and out of the building. I glanced down at my watch before heading off in the directed of the English building; just two more classes today and I was finished, thankfully. Two hours to go…

-

Every time I leave this class, I am reminded more and more of why I'm a Biology major and not an English major, like Emma – Not only am I not the greatest writer in the world, but English… is _horribly_ boring. I hiked my backpack onto one of my shoulders and squinted up at the sky; the sun was starting to go down and I was starving, so I headed home.

I stopped in the lobby of my apartment building and peeked through the little window of our mailbox – completely, absolutely full. I sighed and started turning the combination dials. My roommates hated coming down to get the mail, even though more than likely the mail was for them. I pulled out the heaping pile of envelopes and packages, closed the door and head up to our apartment. Once I was finally inside, I threw the pile onto the kitchen counter, grabbed a box of leftover Chinese food from the fridge and head back to my room. I sighed. I had a long night of homework ahead of me.

I _hate_ Mondays.

-

_**The Next Morning – Lewis**_

I got up late and stumbled out of my room with one thought in mind – breakfast. I needed food. My roommate Tyler was already up, sitting on the couch watching TV. I threw together a bowl of cereal and sat down at the kitchen table and started shoveling it into my mouth. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that the spot on the counter where I had dropped the mail was fairly empty now, meaning that both of them had grabbed their own stuff, but a large brown envelope was still there.

"Tyler, did Kyle get all his mail?" I asked between bites.

"Yeah, man. That one is yours." He called from over the couch. Hm, that's weird. I'm not expecting anything; I haven't ordered anything in months. I finished my breakfast and dropped the bowl in the sink and head over the counter. Sure enough, the envelope was addressed to me. There was no return address, but the handwriting on the envelope was very familiar. I tore open the flap and turned it upside down, dropping the contents into my hand.

It was a neatly organized packet of paper that had plastic binding and a clear cover sheet. When I looked down at it and started to flip through the pages, I realized that this was Cora's half of our thesis paper – completely finished, put in order: done. She had even put in the parts of mine that I had finished so far where they belonged. I wrinkled my eyebrows; this was kind of strange. We had only just started a few weeks ago, and I knew she worked fast but… wow, _this_ fast? I guess that she wanted me to have a copy so that I was able to work the rest of my parts in more efficiently, but still… this was a little strange. She would normally give me something like this in person, or at least let me know it was coming. I frowned a little and put the packet back in the envelope and bought it back to my room. She must be really sick if she sending me things through the mail.

I glanced at my alarm clock – 11a.m. I don't have class for another few hours, maybe I should go over there and check on her? I know she wouldn't miss class yesterday just to avoid me, and I knew that's not the kind of person she was, so I'd stopped being paranoid about that. But I knew that something had to be wrong, and her being sick was the only explanation I could come up with. I threw on some clothes and grabbed my keys and head out the door.

-

I head up the last flight of steps and turned the corner to Cora's. I was a few minutes later than I wanted to be, but I had stopped at the store on the way. Zane was right: I was no Casanova, in fact I kind of sucked with girls, but I didn't want to mess this up and I could certainly _try_. I brought her a white orchid plant, and some tissues and cough medicine – I didn't know what she was sick with, but it couldn't hurt. I used my free hand to knock on the door, the other hand held the bag.

That's weird. No answer. I knocked again – nothing. Confused now, I pushed my ear up against the door and listened. There was nothing but complete silence coming from the other side. I frowned a little and stepped back from the door, peering down at the small space under the door between in and the floor. There was no light coming through. Now I was a little bit nervous. It was noon, I knew she didn't have class, and I knew she wasn't working. What was going on? I figured that I would leave the things I had brought for her on her kitchen counter, and so I went for the spot she usually hid her spare key – on top of the door frame. I felt along the top of it and found it, pulling it down and unlocking the door. I pushed it open quietly just in case she was asleep after all, and immediately got a knot in my stomach.

There was something wrong, here. I opened the door further and stepped inside, closing the door behind me. The entire place was dark and still, it didn't feel right. I hoisted the bag up slightly and stepped into the kitchen, placing it on the counter and flipped on the lights. Then I knew there was something wrong.

The walls are completely barren. Pictures, decorations, everything has been taken down. Stacked in the middle of the living room are boxes. I was nervous now, and pulled out my phone. I dialed Cora's number one more time and waited. I heard ringing coming from the door on the other side of the living room. The knot in my stomach got bigger and I let it keep ringing as I quickly crossed the living room and opened the bedroom door. Cora wasn't in there either, but her phone was lit up on top of her dresser from my call. I shut my phone and picked up hers, flipping it open. What I saw were several days of missed calls, unread text messages and voicemails. I glanced to the other side of the room next to the neatly made bed and saw more boxes. I carefully opened the box on top, and found it filled with clothes and items from all around the now nearly empty bedroom. My head spun a little bit and I sat down on the corner of the bed.

She hadn't responded to any messages because she hadn't been _getting_ them. This was bad – she wasn't sick, she was _missing_. I flipped open my phone and dialed Cleo's number. This was a much bigger problem than I thought.

-

**A/N**: Next chapter, what tests is Denman putting Cora through? Will Lewis and the girls find out where she is before Denman moves her lab and projects to Canada? Review, my lovelies! : ]


	15. Lost and Found

_**The Next Morning - Cora**_

It was dark when I opened my eyes. I looked around quickly and feeling my dark hair swirling at my cheeks, I immediately knew I was still under water. I felt hot and I brought a hand to my forehead and pressed my palm to it. It was hot, much warmer than the water around me. My body jerked suddenly. I had forgotten where I was for a second and I was still pretty groggy from the second round of morphine pills the night before. I pressed my hands down and realized I was lying on the bottom of the glass tank. The second I put pressure on my arms I regretted it. The pain in my arms from Denman testing my powers for a second night in a row had exceeded beyond any soreness I'd felt in my life. I winced and tried to use my tail to press my body up higher in the water and squirmed a little; the edges of my fin were a little raw and sore from rubbing up against the glass for a couple of days, but once I was able to rise up a little in the cramped tank I peered through the walls at my surroundings. Through a window near the ceiling of the room I was in, I could see sunlight beaming through the window. My eyes adjusted to the light and I was able to see more clearly now, and glanced briefly at the other creatures in the tanks surrounding mine. I peered sideways and noticed a single dolphin swimming back and forth in a tank not too much larger than my own and bit my lip sadly. Denman had told me in one of my earlier visits that this was a rescue-dolphin, one who would be released into the wild again soon. But it didn't make me any less sad to see him trapped in there by himself. It was almost as if I could feel his distress and confusion, but I felt better remembering that he'd be home soon.

'_It's all right, little guy_,' I thought, tilting my head to the side slightly, '_They'll let you go soon, they just wanted to make you feel better, is all._' My face blanked when the dolphin turned to face me and tilted his own body in the same way that I just had. He tossed his head up, and it was probably dumb to think so, but to me he immediately looked happier. It was almost as if he was able to hear me. I settled back into the corner of the small tank and flicked my tongue across my bottom lip, pressing the spot that had been split. It was healing slowly, which was good. I tasted the salt from the water I was in and pulled my tongue back into my mouth – it tasted bitter, and was very warm; just like the ocean here in Australia. As a freshwater mermaid I wasn't used to spending days at a time in salt water, and definitely not water this warm and I felt kind of hot all over and a little lightheaded. I brushed it off and attributed it to how warm the water was and let my body sink back down in the tank and closed my eyes.

Though I was still a little groggy, my thoughts started to wander. I thought about Lewis, and what happened last. He hadn't been asking me to _feed_ him; he was asking me on a _date_. And then he had given my 20 year-old self my very first kiss – something I had not exactly been expecting _ever_. It looked like he liked me back after all. Unfortunately, I thought, it doesn't really matter. I know what I can and cannot have and have long since accepted it. Lewis is a wonderful, sweet guy and deserves the very best – not a circus freak who everybody thinks murdered their entire family and is out for more blood. Pretty soon he'll figure all that out for himself and find a nice, normal girl. Now Emma, Cleo and Rikki won't be bitter towards him, which was one of the things aside from the obvious that I had been aiming for. Lewis has been an angel helping to keep those girls safe, and I needed him to keep it up for them.

'_Luckily_,' I thought as I looked up to see the top of my tank opening, '_soon it won't be an issue anymore_.' Lewis and the girls would move on and assume that I just happened to move away when Denman left.

I felt arms reach down through the water and grab onto my own, which made me wince – those were sore enough on their own, they didn't really need to be _squeezed_. I was pulled out of the tank and lowered onto a hospital gurney covered in a few layers of white towels. My sight was a little blurry, having gotten used to seeing under water, but I could make out Denman, Jerry, and a few other members of Denman's team standing up around me. Voices were muffled a little as I felt a needle jam into my forearm. I sighed and opened my eyes. Denman's team had given up the nice act last night, and I wasn't expecting to be invited into any more conversations. I glanced down and noticed a tube attached to the needle connecting to a unit bag that was slowly filling up. I furrowed my eyebrows, confused. They had already taken a blood sample the night before last. Then I realized that they probably figured out that once Denman put her research together, other scientists would pay a lot of money for mermaid blood – even though it was no different than human blood, and all they'd be getting was my good old regular O+. I sighed and closed my eyes again; this wasn't going to help the lightheadedness, but it's okay. I don't think they're much planning on letting me walk or stand anytime soon, anyway.

After a few minutes, I felt one needle pull out of me and another one prick into the other arm. However, this needle wasn't taking anything out. This needle was putting _in_ – I was being drugged again. I frowned sadly; even a team of _literally_ evil scientists were afraid of me. What kind of monster have I turned into? Maybe I _am_ just another Charlotte.

The gurney was pushed back out of the maze of tanks and out into the hallway. Further down the hall, it was pushed through swinging doors into the room that I had seen once before – the one "furnished" with a long metal table with straps. One of Denman's goons hoisted me up onto the table and Denman herself set to the task of strapping me down. The drugs had begun to kick in slightly by this point, and even though I could feel the pressure from the straps, I couldn't feel any pain from them – or from anything else. I tensed a little when I saw Denman pull out a scalpel and two Petri dishes. I watched Denman hover over my tail and raise the scalpel. I winced and shut my eyes as she began carefully slicing and pulling away a 3-inch long clustering of my scales. I knew that when the drugs wore off, this would hurt. She dropped them into one Petri dish and blotted away the little bit of blood, then picked up another sterile scalpel. Linda went around to the foot of the table and pressed my fin down flat on the table to make it easier to work with. Using the scalpel, she carved out a tiny 1-inch triangle from one of the curves at the bottom of my fin. She dropped this into the second Petri dish and handed them off to Jerry. My mind was beginning to haze over, a side effect of the injection.

"Label these and store them in the locker. Did you talk to the realtor in the Hudson Bay?" She asked, busily taking off her latex gloves.

"Yep! He says we're in luck, because the last team that used the lab left a week ago. 'Said we could move in as soon as Monday morning, if we wanted to." Jerry responded. Denman's smile spread wide across her face.

"Excellent! Great work, Jerry! Well then, that's what we'll do. Have the rest of the team pack up the essentials…"

The effect of the injection I had been given a few minutes ago had kicked in full force, and while the voices sounded far away I was able to hear the last few important words just before I slipped into a drug induced sleep.

"Have Brett come in on Saturday," Denman said, "We'll schedule the dissection for that night. We'll have more of what we need when we get there, we don't need to bring her. We'll have everything we need from her by then anyway, and the rest we'll be getting from the dissection. Doing it this way will make travelling less _messy_."

_Dissection_. On Saturday. Today was Wednesday. The word scared me; the fact that it signaled dying scared me, which I guess is normal but for some reason I can't help but be a little mad at myself for it. I had prepared for this, everything was ready to go. By this time next week, Linda Denman will be out of Australia and off on a wild goose chase in Canada. I smirked sleepily and felt the empty, dark sleep wash over me.

_**Later that day – Cleo**_

It's been a full day now since Lewis called us and told us that Cora was missing.

We had all thought he may have been overreacting just a little, but when he told us to come over to Cora's I could feel in my stomach that something was wrong the second we got to her door. I had looked at Emma and Rikki; it was pretty clear they could feel something wasn't right, too. When Lewis opened the door and told us to come in it was even more obvious. We had only been to Cora's condo once - for dinner - right after Lewis introduced her to us. But I could see that between then and now that something eerie had happened. All the pictures of her family she had had hanging on the wall, mirrors, decorations, books – _everything_ had been packed into the boxes that were stacked in the living room and bedroom.

The entire place was bare, not like the last time I saw it at all, and it felt creepy. Lewis had shown us that she had left her cell phone, her purse and wallet with all of her money, cards and ID in her bedroom. It was clear to us that she hadn't been there in a while, but the fact that she left important items that most people take with them when they go somewhere was what scared us.

Lewis was a bit of a nervous wreck at the moment and actually, so was Rikki. I know she felt bad before about what had happened to Cora, but this has made it even worse. Lewis, ever the pessimist but still my best friend, has been blurting out worst case scenarios for the past 24 hours.

"Someone could have broken in there and _kidnapped_ her or something…" He muttered. We were sitting on a bench in the park after having searched town for any sign of Cora for the past few hours. I lifted an eyebrow. How… creative, Lewis. I put a hand on his shoulder, trying to keep him calm.

"Nobody broke in, Lewis; the door was locked, the windows aren't broken…"

"What if she was in an accident or something, Cleo…?" He was still mumbling. I bit my lip a little bit; this was something we had all kind of silently been thinking, but nobody wanted to say out loud. We all hoped it wasn't the case.

"Well… Emma is checking with the hospitals around here, and Rikki went to the restaurant to talk to Nate to see if she's been there or told him anything." I tried to sound hopeful; everyone else is usually so negative that I have to be. I can only hope that _my_ hope makes him feel a bit better. As if on cue, I looked up to see Emma and Rikki walking together across the grass coming towards us. I could see in their faces that the news wasn't good.

"Did you find out anything?" Lewis asked quickly. Emma and Rikki glanced at one another. Thankfully, Lewis didn't catch it but I did. Emma spoke first.

"Well… I visited both of the hospitals in town, and called the other three in the area. None of them said they have any recent patients that fit Cora's description. I asked if they could check their morgues as well, but they told me no. I couldn't push too much more, because then they asked if I was looking for a missing friend and if I had gotten the police involved. I had to cut it off there." Emma shifted uncomfortably and I saw her rub her arm idly – I knew she was nervous about being asked questions; it wasn't like we _could_ report Cora missing. Getting the police involved in looking for a mermaid was not the smartest thing for three other mermaids to do. She glanced at Rikki, who took that as her cue to speak.

"Uh… well I talked to Nate. He told me he hasn't seen her since last Thursday; that's before the last time you saw her, Lewis… sorry, I guess that doesn't really help." She stuffed her hands in the pockets of her jeans and looked at the ground – yeah. She still felt awful. I heard Lewis sigh.

"We've checked all the places she usually goes; the café, the track at school, the shops on Custer Avenue, here at the park… Nothing." It was quiet for a second and then Rikki spoke again.

"Well, there's one place we haven't looked." She said quietly. Lewis perked his head up and I saw him lift an eyebrow.

"Where?"

"Out there." She nodded her head behind us towards the ocean. I felt my face light up.

"Of course! Good idea, Rikki, we should check some mermaid-friendly hiding places!" I stood up and pulled Lewis up off the bench, "You stay here in case she calls one of us from wherever she is, and try to stay calm, 'kay?" I pulled my phone out of my pocket and handed it to Lewis, and Rikki and Emma did the same. I gave him a quick friendly hug and joined Rikki and Emma as we hurried off towards the beach.

-

It has been hours, and even I was beginning to give up hope. It was dark now, and the three of us had split up and looked everywhere in the area: every underwater reef, every shoreline, we even checked Mako Island. Thankfully and oddly enough, the cameras that Denman had set up near the cave entrance had been removed. At least we had _one_ good thing to tell Lewis.

We walked back up the beach after Rikki had dried us off and walked back to the bench, expecting Lewis to have left by now. We were wrong, even me. He was sitting in the same spot we had left him in.

"Did you find her?" He asked. Emma and Rikki both looked at me. Well jeez; I guess I had to be the one with the bad news.

"Well… no. But we promise, we looked everywhere. We even checked Mako. Denman has taken her cameras down, finally." I said and smiled a little. Lewis sighed and stood up tiredly, handing each of us our phones back.

"Thanks for checking, you guys…" He muttered, and we started heading out of the park. After a few seconds, I noticed him stop short from next to me. I stopped too, and looked at his face. There was something going on in his head, I could see it.

"Emma, Rikki, hang on," I told them. They stopped walking and came back to us, "Lewis, are you okay?"

"Did you say that Denman took her cameras down?" He asked.

"Yep!"

"_All_ of her cameras?"

"Yeah, we circled the entire island from above and under water. There's nothing there, but we could see the strings and straps from where they used to be. But they're gone." Said Rikki. She looked at Lewis curiously, as did I and Emma. Where was he going with this? His face blanked and I saw his mouth drop open slightly, "Why, what happened?" She asked nervously.

"Oh, shit…" Lewis muttered. He shut his eyes and wiped his hands down his face. Now I was nervous; not a whole lot made him curse.

"_What _is it?!" I heard Emma now.

"You guys, Denman took those cameras down because she's not _looking _for you anymore."

"But that's a good thing, right?" I asked.

"It's great for the three of you, yeah. But Denman wasn't going to stop hunting mermaids until she got what she wanted; Cora _knew_ that. The fact that the cameras are gone means that she _has_ what she wants."

I felt my body stiffen. I had a feeling I knew what this meant, but I really, really didn't want it to be true so I didn't say it. Then Rikki did.

"...She turned herself over to Denman?"

"That must have been the plan she said she had. I knew it, I knew I should have stopped and asked…" Lewis muttered and started walking again, faster than before. I had to jog a little with Rikki and Emma to keep up with him.

"Where are you going?!" I asked.

"I have to see if that's where she is." He replied, but didn't stop walking.

"How are you going to do that?" Emma asked, slightly out of breath.

"I'm going to hack the _hell_ out of this woman's surveillance system."

-

_**Lewis **_

We got to my apartment at a little after 6 and went straight to my room. I ignored Kyle who was screeching something about three girls being "too much for me at one time" and flipped open my laptop and locked the door.

"Are you sure you know how to do this?" Emma asked me. I know she's the voice of reason, but I was past reason at this point.

"Of course I do, all I need is the IP address of the lab which is easy enough to track with the right software…" I muttered and opened up the tracker software and plugged the address of the lab into it. What I didn't mention was that it was also very illegal. Within a few seconds the pages of scrolling numbers rolled over into a single IP address, "Perfect." I plugged my desktop monitor into my laptop and connected to Denman's surveillance system. If this woman thought she was secure, she had another thing coming. I looked up at the desktop monitor just in time to see several black and white screens pop up, each from a different camera inside of Denman's lab. I scanned each screen carefully.

"Make this one bigger, Lewis." Cleo pointed to a screen that showed a room full of what looked like fish tanks of varying sizes from behind me. I enlarged it and hit the controls to move the camera inside of the room, inspecting it carefully. Then I saw it. Amongst a bunch of ordinary marine animals, something stuck out like a sore thumb. In a very small tank was something that looked too human to belong in that room. I hit another control and zoomed in. I slammed my fist down on my desk at what I saw: it was Cora, laying at the bottom of a tank and not moving with the exception of her arm, which would twitch every few seconds. I noticed that some sort of tube was attached to the inside of her forearm and leading outside the tank, but the camera isn't sharp enough for me to be able to tell what it is – but I know I don't like it, whatever it is. I know she isn't sleeping; it's 6 o' clock and the rest of the animals in the tanks around her are swimming around idly. Something is wrong with her. If Denman and her team have hurt her, they will _not_ get away unhurt. I can only hope that witch of a woman had the decency to put her in fresh water and not salt water.

"Can… can you make it any bigger, Lewis? There's some sort of tag hanging off her tank, maybe we can see what it says." I heard Rikki now. I was still pretty pissed off at her, but there was somebody's life to worry about right now and she was right; there was a tag hanging off of Cora's tank, just like every other 'experiment' in that room. I knew from my own time working with Denman that these tags had all kinds of information on them, including of the status of the project they were attached to. I snapped to attention and started the task of manipulating the controls and enhancing the portion of the screen that the tag was in. The second it focused, I froze. I couldn't speak, I couldn't move. I don't know if it was seconds or minutes that passed, but after a while I felt a hand on my shoulder: Cleo.

"Lewis…"

The tag read 'Date of dissection: Oct. 29th.' They were going to kill her. They were going to dissect her like an animal, and they were going to do it on Saturday. Three days from now.

"We're not going to let it happen, Lewis. We can't." I heard Emma's voice now.

"I need to get her out of there."

"Lewis… we're not going to let you do it on your own. We're going to help. Zane, too, he'll do whatever you tell him to." It was Rikki this time. I am practically reeling. These are my friends, who have treated the girl I care about like crap. They are the reason that she's given herself up to Denman. She had been worrying about looking out for them, about keeping them out of harm's way for _months_, and in all those months she hadn't had anybody doing the same for her. I know they feel bad, I know they do, and there will be plenty of time for me to be mad later. I don't want to get her out and have them turn around and chase her out of town, but I know that I need them. If they're willing to go into Denman's lab to help, hopefully it means they've really changed their minds about the situation.

"Are you sure you want to?" I had to ask. I was met with three nods and a matching set of sincere stares. I sighed and looked back at the screen, finding it hard to look away. It felt like if I looked away, she would disappear. I wiped my hands down my face and rubbed my temples, "Rikki, call Zane and tell him to get over here. We have a lot of work to do tonight."

-

**A/N**: Yikes. Things have gotten bad, and Saturday is coming up fast. How are the girls and Lewis going to help? Will the girls be okay inside of Denman's lab? All this and a lot more in the next chapter, review please! Let me know what you think. : ]


	16. Held Back

_**The next morning – Lewis**_

None of us have slept. It's 6 o' clock on a Thursday morning, and we've all been awake for almost 24 hours, now. We were awake all night putting together plans to get Cora out of Denman's lab; pulling old blueprints of the building, figuring out exactly where each surveillance camera was located, finding out how to get to the room that Cora is in, and most importantly how to get back out again. Everybody had a job, everybody knew what their job was, and I was really relieved to see that the girls and Zane have turned around; they were working just as hard as I was, and no one complained about being tired or how late it was.

The funny thing is that now it's not even the lack of sleep that's killing me. It's the fact that we've still got to wait hours until we can do anything. It's the hours of waiting that are killing me. I stood at my bedroom window, and had been pacing back and forth between it and the surveillance monitors I had pulled up for at least a half an hour now. Rikki and Cleo had taken refuge on my bed and were trying to stay awake, Zane was sitting up on the floor up against the bed with his head next to Rikki's, and Emma was curled up in my bean bag chair with her head propped up on her fist, trying to stay awake. I knew they were exhausted, but I was incredibly thankful that they'd stayed with me through this.

"Guys… you should get home and get some rest."

"We're already resting, McCartney, don't ruin it…" I heard Rikki mumble into my pillow. Sure enough I looked, and she was half asleep.

"I meant in your own home, Rikki." I muttered and saw Zane smirk a little and start to get up off the floor. Cleo pushed herself up, too.

"Yeah, come on guys. Lewis is gonna need some sleep too." She said. I blinked and raised an eyebrow; it was 6 o' clock, I didn't have enough time to go back to sleep before my 9:30 class.

"Yup, let's go! Rikki, you too!" Emma got up and somehow immediately shook off her tired appearance and looked alert. All she got was a muffled grunt in response, to which I saw Zane bend down and pick Rikki up and sling her over his shoulder.

"We're meeting back here at 10 o' clock tonight, yeah?" Zane asked. I nodded and shoved my hair off of my forehead.

"Yeah. Go get some rest, guys, I'll see you all later." By this time I had walked them all out into the hallway quietly, trying not to wake up either of my roommates.

"The same goes for you, too, Lewis. No class today, you can afford to skip a day for this." Emma ordered.

"Wow, Emma-Responsibility-Gilbert is telling me to cut class? Hell hath frozen over at long last, ladies and gentlemen…" I muttered and smirked. She was probably right, though. As usual.

"We'll see you tonight, Lewis. Try to relax, we're going to get her out of there. Don't watch those monitors all day, okay?" Cleo put her hand on my shoulder as she passed me out into the hall. I smiled a little and nodded. I would try, but I wasn't making any promises. With a wave I saw them off and watched them head down the hallway. I closed the door to the apartment and sighed, standing up against the door for a second before heading back to my bedroom. I just managed to ditch my shirt and jeans before climbing into bed and glanced across the room at the back and white monitors. I know Cora is a fighter, and she's got some pretty impressive strength, but I don't think she knows that she's _supposed_ to be fighting. If there is one thing I've learned in my years around mermaids, it's that a lot of the time the mermaid in them takes over. To _her_, this was probably the obvious choice. To _me_, I know there could have been a better way. I _know_ it; if we had just been able to all talk about it together this would never have happened.

I sighed and rolled over and clicked off my bedside lamp. Now, to try and get some rest before tonight.

_**A little while later – Cora**_

It was the buzzing in my head that woke me up. The buzzing that I thought I was pretty much finished with, at this point. I was wrong. I was having a vision, and I did _not_ like what I saw.

_It was dark out, nighttime. The people standing around outside were blurry at first but after a split second I was able to recognize Cleo, Rikki, Emma, Lewis and Zane. I was confused; I thought me being in Denman's lab would solve everything, and as a result would stop the visions. Can't I apply scientific theory to __anything__ in the mermaid world? No, Cora, you can't. You should have learned this a long time ago, but did you? Nope, not ever. Nothing that has to do with being a mermaid is logical. You should try listening to yourself sometimes, good lord… _

_I shook it off and started to pay attention to what the five of them were doing. I saw that they were carrying some things; Lewis had his khaki hiking bag, and Emma, Cleo and Zane were carrying towels. Zane also had a hammer. I was even more confused; were they going night-swimming? What would they need a hammer for? It took a few seconds for me to realize where they were standing, but when I did I felt my blood run cold. They were standing right outside the entrance to the property of Dr. Denman's lab. What on Earth were they trying to do? Didn't they know that this was the most dangerous place they could be? _

_I watched as Rikki went through first, then after a few minutes the rest of them followed her. I tried not to be too nervous just yet; maybe they were just cutting through? But then I saw it. I saw Emma use her freezing power to freeze the knob on the locked back door, and Zane smashed it with the back of a hammer. They were coming inside._

My body convulsed a little as I shook myself out of the vision prematurely. I didn't want to see any more; I didn't need to. My stomach had a tight knot in it and my head was even hotter than it was before, even though the vision was long gone. After all this time, I knew that only meant one thing: They were coming tonight. I groaned and pulled my hand to my burning forehead despite the soreness in my arm and let out a groan under the water and felt something even stranger than the heat radiating from my head; there was something attached to my arm. Frustrated now, I looked down and saw that there was an IV needle in my left forearm with a tube leading up and out of the tank to where I could not see – they must have put it in when I was still "asleep." I was still sort of woozy and I knew they'd be mad but I yanked it out quickly anyway.

There is absolutely no way that I will let them get into this building – I don't care what it takes.

_**That night – Emma**_

I stood up onto my toes and pecked Ash on the lips and smiled happily before turning to head out the door.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come help out?" He asked. He's a complete sweetheart, but I needed him to sit this out for me – especially because he was already nice enough to give me the night off from work at the café. I didn't need to potentially drag him into the path of the beautiful and crazy Linda Denman.

"Absolutely. I promise, next week you take a night off and I'll cover you, then we'll be even! I'll call you when we make it to Max's place, if you want you can meet us there afterwards, okay?" I smiled and he walked with me as I head to the door of his house to leave.

"All right, if you're positive. Be careful, all right? I love you."

"Always! And I love you too. Keep your phone on, sweetie, I'll be calling!" I beamed at him and jogged down the steps and was on my way to Lewis's apartment building. When I got there, I saw Lewis standing outside holding his hiking bag down by his feet. Rikki and Zane were there already; they'd probably been there for a while, now. I know they feel terrible about what happened to Cora, especially after what happened between her and Zane. They were working pretty hard to make it up to Lewis, I could see. As I head up the walkway I looked around, not seeing Cleo yet. I checked my watch: it was 9:55; she still had 5 minutes and I knew she would be here. I smirked a little – She had come back to the apartment after her night class and gotten herself all dolled up. Curiosity got the best of me, and no sooner had I asked where she was going did our doorbell ring. I pulled it open to find none other than Nate, standing there with flowers. It was about time this happened, and I knew Cleo was happy wherever they were. But, she wouldn't miss this, not when so many people were depending on her.

Right on cue, Cleo bounded around the corner of the building into view; She must have gone home and changed into more casual clothes first. But there was somebody else following behind her – Nate.

"I'm not late, am I?" She was a little out of breath.

"Nope, you're right on time! Hey, Nate." Lewis replied, but I could tell he was slightly confused by Nate's presence, as we all were – Nate has known our secret for about a year now, but none of us were expecting to see him tonight.

"Hey… Lewis. I'm sorry to just kinda… show up like this, but Cleo told me what happened and I really, really want to help. Can ya use me, mate?"

"Nate, I'll take all the help I can get. I've got the perfect job for you, man. Head to Max's place, he knows what we're doing tonight so he's awake and on call. Tell him I sent you, and help him fill the test-pool with _fresh water_ at 65 degrees. The temperature is _very_ important, Nate, and it'll take a while so the sooner you guys can get it ready, the better." Lewis explained quickly. I hoped we could get this done quickly. Not only did I want to get Cora out of that tank, but I wanted Denman to get what she deserved. Nate nodded and started walking, calling back to us as he left.

"Got it! Keep me posted – Good luck, guys, be careful!" I caught him squeeze Cleo's hand briefly, and then he was gone. Lewis hoisted his backpack up over her shoulder then looked at the four of us and sighed. He looks a little frazzled; he better have slept.

"All right. Let's go."

Zane pulled his car up to the side of the road outside of the entrance to Denman's lab and we piled out. It was dark, and even though we knew that at this time there probably wouldn't be anybody in the lab itself, it still felt eerie. We gathered around the gated entrance to the property and everyone readied their supplies. I twisted my hair neatly into a bun to keep it out of my face and tossed my towel to lay over my shoulder. It was game time and I was ready.

"Emma, you ready?" Lewis asked. I grinned and nodded.

"You know it." I replied.

"Zane?"

"Let's do this, Emma." He smirked at me and ushered me in front of him. I approached the gate and eyed the huge iron lock hanging from the center. I furrowed my eyebrows and concentrated and held my hand out, clenching it slowly. Within a few seconds, the iron lock was completely frozen and frosted over. I smirked proudly at my handiwork, and Zane came up beside me. I stepped back, and he lifted his arm. He held a huge metal hammer and chuckled, flipping it in his hand once expertly before catching it by the handle. I rolled my eyes. What a _show-off_; no wonder he and Rikki have lasted so long. He raised it and brought it slamming down, back first on the lock. One whack did it, and the iron lock shattered.

"All right, Rikki, you're in. Good luck!" Lewis whispered. I stood aside and watched as Rikki hurried through the gates. While we couldn't see her anymore, we stayed completely silent and smiled each time we saw sparks light up the darkness. I knew Rikki was having fun with her first task – melting the outdoor surveillance cameras. I glanced at Lewis, who was still hooked into the lab's surveillance system on his laptop and was watching Rikki's progress. With each camera she destroyed, a screen on Lewis's laptop would go fuzzy. It was quiet for a minute and Lewis looked up and gave a sigh of what I knew was relief, "She's got all the outdoor cameras."

Within a few seconds of him saying this, we saw Rikki appear at the entrance again, smiling hopefully.

"Was that all of them?" She asked.

"That was all of them," Lewis replied, "Let's go." He led the way through the gates and we all followed, jogging quickly across the laboratory's pitch black campus towards the back of the building.

Suddenly, we all stopped short. We looked around at each other, confused. There was nothing around us, nothing blocking our way and nothing pulling us from behind. But for some reason, we could not move another inch forward but we could move freely back in the direction we had just come from. This didn't make sense!

"What's going on?" I heard Cleo pipe up from behind me. It was quiet for a second and then I heard a very familiar exasperated groan – Rikki.

"She doesn't want us to get any closer." She moaned, frustrated. I raised an eyebrow and turned my head to look at her, glancing around in the darkness cautiously.

"Who doesn't, Denman? Do you think she might still be here after all…?" I questioned. My nerves were kicking in a little bit, even though I knew we could handle Denman all together. Then Rikki gave me the reply I hadn't been expecting.

"No, not Denman – _Cora!_ She must have seen us coming; she's holding us back."

**A/n**: Uh oh. How are they going to get in now? And what happens when it turns out they're not nearly as alone as they thought they were? Find out in chapter 17! **Review, please, my lovelies! 55 is the magic number this time around, haha.**


	17. Seek and Destroy

**A/n: **All right guys, here is chapter 17! I'm sorry it was later than I wanted to post it, I've been doing MASS packing and school shopping. I'm going to do my best to keep editing and uploading these regularly, but bear with me because I'm moving into college on Sunday, classes begin Wednesday and I tend to get really busy at school with friends and homework and being a nerd in general… but I'm going to do my absolute best, because I have the nicest readers in the world : ] Enjoy, everyone!** If I can get to 61 reviews before posting chapter 18 I would be incredibly grateful! : ] **

-

_**Inside the lab**_

Cora bit her lip and furrowed her eyebrows, concentrating hard. Jerry had come in before leaving for the night and had seen that she'd removed her IV. Not wanting to risk having her in a right enough state to control her powers to kill him, he'd called for the burly security guard to pull her out of the tank momentarily and restrain her hands while he gave her a morphine injection. Cora was tired of being drugged, tired of feeling drugged, tired of being tired, and for some reason being in the water making her fever come down. Thankfully, she had been without the morphine long enough to be able to follow the girls, Lewis and Zane through her visions. She'd seen them gathering, and knew she had been right about them planning to come into the lab that night.

It was hard fighting off the hazy side effects of the injection, but the Protector force inside of her made her push—even though she didn't realize what it was that was _making_ her push. After a few moments, she saw them begin to hurry through the entrance of the property and opened her eyes, preparing herself. Biting down on her bottom lip, she pulled every ounce of energy in her body that she had, forced through the medicinal haze and clenched her fingers, forcing both hands out in front of her. She squeezed her eyes shut and was met with bright bursts of colors behind her lids before focusing onto the five people outside who were now stopped in their tracks halfway across the property.

'_Good,' _She thought, feeling some relief_, 'Now turn around get out of here.' _She smirked triumphantly and nodded a little to herself, then cut her eyes and sharpened her concentration. She didn't know what in the world they were doing there, but there was no way they would get into that building, Denman or no Denman.

She had a job to do.

-

_**Outside the lab**_

"Who doesn't, Denman? Do you think she might still be here after all…?" Emma questioned. Her nerves were kicking in a little bit, even though she knew they could handle Denman all together. Then Rikki gave her the reply she hadn't been expecting.

"No, not Denman – _Cora!_ She must have seen us coming; she's holding us back."

"What?! How do you know?" Emma asked, shocked.

"Because, this is the same thing she did to me that night in the water when she followed me!" Rikki groaned and shut her eyes. Lewis pulled his laptop back out of his khaki bag and flipped it open, once again pulling up the surveillance screens. He let out a growl of frustration and kneeled down on the grass, shoving his hair out of his face.

"Damnit, Cora… please don't pull the stubbornness NOW…" He grumbled and enlarged the surveillance screen that showed the now fairly empty room of tanks that Cora was kept in. Sure enough, through the grainy, blurry screen she could be seen forcing her hands out in front of her, her face screwed up in concentration. He shook his head, frustrated, and smacked the screen shut and stood up again, "Fight back."

"Wh—Lewis, are you talking to us?" Cleo turned around to face him.

"I'm not talking to myself, guys; fight _back_."

"Lewis what are you talking about?!" Rikki demanded, whipping her head around to look at him.

"I mean," Lewis began, "that there are THREE of you and ONE of her. You three are _Defenders_, she's a _Protector_; if the three of you are working together for something that _you want_ to do, if you push back she's not going to be able to fight against you, it's not in her make-up—now push _back_!"

The girls were slightly taken aback by the tone of Lewis's voice – they had never heard him sound that impatient, but what he was telling them had not been something they had thought of.

"How, though? We've never even done that before…" Emma's voice sounded panicky now and her eyes darted slightly in the darkness.

"Hell if I know, it's a shot in the dark but you need to try, now." He replied. His face was stone serious and even Zane was startled by his outburst. Cleo, Emma and Rikki exchanged a nervous glance with one another before stepping forward to the point where Cora was holding them back. Cleo stood between Emma and Rikki and held her hands out to each of them. Rikki raised an eyebrow and glanced down at Cleo's hand before looking back up at her face.

"You want us to hold hands? What is this, pre-school?" She asked. Cleo blushed a little and shrugged slightly.

"It can't hurt, Rikki. We're going to need to put out one force that's as strong as we can make it, I don't want to take any risks. Come on." Cleo shook her hand once at Rikki and she grabbed it, Emma taking her other hand. The three of them raised their hands to shoulder level right up against the force holding them back. With a few uneasy sighs, the girls clenched their fingers and concentrated; they had no clue what they were doing, but Lewis was right – they had to try.

-

_**Inside the lab**_

Cora shook her head. Something had broken her concentration; snapped it like a rubber-band. The second it was gone, she could feel the unpleasant side effects of the morphine hit her like a ton of bricks, now working through her bloodstream at full force. She panicked; she had _had_ it, what was going on? This was the worst possible time for her to mess up. She had to get her focus back.

She tried sharpening her thoughts back to the girls, Lewis and Zane. The clouding over of her mind was incredibly powerful and she let out a scream of frustration under the water. The drugs did just what Denman wanted them to do; kept her powers inhibited, kept her from tapping into her visions. She was powerless now that her initial focus was gone, and the drugs had taken over.

-

_**Outside the lab**_

It took a few minutes, but after a while the heaviness of the force in the air restraining them was gone; as if it had popped like a bubble. The girls, surprised that their blind efforts had worked, dropped their hands and let go of one another and blinked at Lewis. Lewis's mouth had turned up in a half hopeful smile, but he wasn't wasting any time.

"Excellent. Great job, guys. All right, let's move." He said quietly, and once more began to lead the way through the darkness around to the back of the building. He smiled once they reached the metal door with a red sign reading "Employees Only." This was the door he had seen on the blueprints, right where it was supposed to be. He jiggled the doorknob, confirming his assumption that the door was locked, "Zane?"

Zane stepped forward quickly and lift the hammer again, slamming it down head first onto the knob. After whacking it three times, the dismantled knob snapped away from the door and fell to the ground with a metallic thud. Lewis stepped in and slipped his fingers in through the hole that the knob left and pressed the dead-latch. He quickly bumped his hip against the door, grinning when it opened. He held the door open slightly and nodded inside.

"Rikki, you're up." He whispered. Rikki nodded and ducked through the door quickly. Once inside, she braced herself. She had poured over the blueprints Lewis had pulled the night before for hours. She hurried down the hall in front of her, stopping about half way down to melt the one security camera at the end of the hall. Once it was down, she turned the corner and pushed her way through the door that led to the stairwell. She had to get down three flights, knocking out a camera between every floor. She was a little nervous about "paving the way" so to speak, but she had the most formidable power in case she were seen. She felt like half of this mess was her fault and she was going to make it up to Cora. Rikki made it down to the last flight and peeked through the door – outside on the wall she saw a sign with arrows pointing in either direction and saw just what they were looking for: "Holding Tanks," and "Specimen Lockers." She smiled and sighed in relief and hurried back up the stairs and down the hallway to the door that her friends were waiting outside of.

"We're in, the holding tanks are marked and so are the specimen lockers." She reported proudly, smiling hopefully.

"Perfect, Rikki! Great work. All right, come on. We're so close, now…" Lewis smiled and they could see some hope creeping back into his face. Rikki led the way this time, hurrying her friends down the hallway and down the three flights of stairs. She pushed open the door she had peeked through earlier and ushered everybody out into the hallway. Everyone was silent and looked at Lewis, awaiting instructions. He sighed, bracing himself. He had a big responsibility; not only was he responsible for Cora, but now he was responsible for four of his friends and didn't want any one of those people getting hurt, "All right. Emma, Zane, you head down to the holding tanks. You know what to do when you get there, and Zane I want you to get her out of that tank _immediately_. Rikki, Cleo, you're with me. Be careful, everyone." Zane and Emma nodded and headed off down the hall towards the room full of holding tanks. Lewis, Cleo and Rikki slipped into the specimen locker room. The second they had the door closed, Rikki locked it and held the inside knob, heating it up to the point that would burn anyone who tried to touch it from the outside as Lewis had instructed her to last night.

"Okay, Lewis, tell us what we're looking for." Cleo said, her eyes glancing around the room as she took a few steps around.

"Anything and everything you think might be related to Cora. Denman's probably got them labeled easily enough; I doubt she expected anyone but her team to see them." Lewis started looking through a file cabinet off to the side of the room and Cleo and Rikki started busily going through the specimen refrigerators.

-

Meanwhile

"From the look of the screen it looked like that camera was towards the back of the room." Zane said as he and Emma wandered through the maze of tanks.

"It looks so creepy in here now that the tanks are empty…" Emma shuddered a little and peeked around each corner cautiously, "You think she's packing up to head out of here?"

"It looks like it. Lucky for her we're helping her along a little tonight." Zane grinned and cast his eyes towards the ceiling, scanning the corners of the room and spotting just what he was looking for, "Emma—Emma look! That's the last camera there on the back wall. Do you think you can freeze it from here? I can probably smash it if I stand on top of—" He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence before Emma had the small camera frozen so solid that it cracked and burst, shattering into a hundred pieces, "Or we could just do it your way. Yikes. Someone's been practicing. Remind me not to piss you off…"

"Don't piss me off, Zane." Emma grinned sweetly at him and hurried towards the back of the room where they had seen Cora's tank on the surveillance camera. Zane rolled his eyes and hurried after her. They weaved their way through the empty tanks before Emma stopped towards the back, "There she is!" She pointed towards the only occupied tank in the back corner of the room and she and Zane crossed the last few yards, standing next to Cora's tank.

"God…" Zane muttered, looking at the silver tailed mermaid laying at the bottom of the tank, "This is only a little bigger than a fish tank. She's not moving, Emma… do you think something's wrong with her?" Emma sighed, walking around the tank in a circle and clutching a small pouch connected to a tube and a needle in her hand.

"Check this out, Zane. I think they've been drugging her. She's breathing, she's alive, but…" Emma tapped the glass gently and pressed hand against the tank sadly, "She's definitely out of it. Let's get her out of this thing." Emma pressed her hands against the top of the tank, resting her fingers against the metal locks and in an instant they were frozen. Zane stepped forward.

"Okay, step back. Just in case we have any water spills…" Zane muttered quietly. Using the teeth of the hammer, he quickly wrenched the frozen locks off of the tank and threw the top off. He spied a small step ladder off to the side of the tank and jumped up onto it, peering down into the water. He quickly submerged his arms into the warm salt water, leaning down as far as he could until his head dipped under the water. He slipped his hands underneath Cora and lifted her up through the water until he had a better grip on her, then hoisted her up into his arms and pulled her out of the water. He hopped down off of the ladder and laid her on the floor, pulling his towel from over his shoulder and reaching out to Emma, who handed him hers, "All right, hopefully I can get this done fast enough… I'm not exactly a pro."

"Just do it. Wrap one around her hair, and use the other one to take care of her body; that's the fastest way."

"Yes ma'am."

-

_**Meanwhile**_

"Jackpot." Lewis mumbled and grinned. He held up Cora's file proudly and shut the file drawer he had ransacked.

"We've got something too, Lewis!" Cleo called from across the room. Rikki peered into the fridge that they had just opened.

"We've got several somethings…" She began pulling several items labeled 'Dean' out of the fridge; Petri dishes, blood samples, DNA samples, and a large unit bag full of what she assumed was Cora's blood.

"Dumb move, Linda. Putting everything we need in one spot just made our job a whole lot easier." Lewis smirked and opened his backpack, stuffing the file and everything from the fridge inside, "All right, let's catch up with Zane and Emma."

They snuck back out into the hallway and hurried down to the holding tank room.

"Emma? Zane?" Lewis called once they were inside and maneuvering their way through the tank-maze.

"Back here!" He heard Emma call back, and he led the way hurrying back to where they were. He let out a huge sigh of relief when he saw that Emma and Zane had Cora sitting up against the tank, tail-free and dry but still dazed. He, Cleo and Rikki rushed over to them and Lewis knelt down in front of Cora.

"Cora…? Cora…"

"They definitely drugged her, Lewis. She somewhat came out of it a minute or so ago, but she didn't realize anybody was with her." Zane pat him on the shoulder. Lewis sighed and shook his head slightly.

"She'll come out of it in a few hours, let's just get her out of here now. Zane, you take this." He handed his now full backpack off to Zane and picked up Cora. She hung limply from his arms, but he was just thankful that she was breathing at this point, "Let's get the hell out of here."

They turned and hurried out of the building as fast as they could. They were almost halfway across the dark property when they heard a booming voice.

"Hey! What the hell do you kids think you're doing?!"

They whipped around just in time to see a huge, burly security guard running at them from the front of the building. With every step he took their hearts pounded harder in their chests. They couldn't run; this guy would be able to catch at least one of them, probably Cleo, who was the slowest runner. Leaving someone behind was not an option. What could they do? It was then that Lewis glanced around and realized that Zane was nowhere to be seen.

'_That punk coward!'_ Lewis thought. Zane must have run off, not wanting to get caught. He was probably already back at his car by now. The feelings of the rest of the youths were exactly the same: angry, disappointed. The security guard was 10 feet from them now.

Suddenly, there was a gray blur as Zane shot out from behind the tree they were standing next to and roughly whacked the security guard in the back of the head with the thick wooden handle of the hammer, knocking him out and sending him stumbling to the ground. Four heads turned to stare at Zane, jaws dropped.

"Stare later guys, that's not gonna keep him down for long but we can sure as hell hope he'll think this was a dream whenever he wakes up…" Zane muttered quickly as he ushered his friends forward, trying to keep everyone moving quickly. The second they were past the gates to the property and back on the sidewalk, Lewis exchanged a glance with Cleo and nodded. Cleo raised her arms slightly towards the sky and swept her hands in a large circle. The six youths stood still as Cleo made the wind pick up steadily, and with a flick of one wrist and the steadying of the other simultaneously let it start to rain and shielded all of them from getting wet. Letting her work carry on, she dropped her arms and Lewis nodded at her again, and then turned and gave a very serious look to Rikki.

"Are you positive you feel comfortable with this?" He asked. She smirked and rolled her eyes.

"Lewis, if I'm going to start my untraceable arson career, I can't think of a better place to begin." She grinned and everyone took a precautionary step back as Rikki turned to face the building and took a deep breath inward. She raised both of her hands level with her shoulders and very, very carefully turned them toward each other in a sweeping circular motion. Within seconds, the entire building was up in flames. She lowered one of her hands and clenched the fingers of the one still raised a few times, smiling mischievously as a few lightning bolts struck the building and the ocean behind it: the fire she'd started would simply look like the horrible result of a bad Australian lightning storm. Satisfied with her destruction of any evidence of mermaids, and any evidence that they had ever set foot in the building, Rikki dropped her hands back to her sides and turned to face her friends, "Let's go."

"Cleo, call Max and let him and Nate know we're on our way." Lewis said as they head quickly for Zane's car. He helped Cora into the back seat with Cleo and Emma and hopped into the trunk space behind them. Rikki jumped into the passenger's seat and without a second glance, they left Denman's burning lab behind them.

-

**A/N**: The rescue is a success! Do they run into any more problems? How will Cora react when she wakes up, and what effect did the salt water have on her? This, as well as plenty of explanations and apologies in chapter 18. Thank you so much for reviewing! Take care, everybody.


	18. This Isn't a Dream

**A/N**: Sorry for the delaaaay! I've been so so busy as you can probably imagine! I moved into school on this past Sunday and classes just began Wednesday, so I haven't had time to write out the rest or edit! I'm so sorry to anyone who has been keeping up with this story. But, now that I'm all moved in to school and settled in with my new roommate, you guys get a new chapter! Haha; enjoy everybody! I'm hoping to get to at least 66 reviews before I post chapter 19 (I hope not everyone has forgotten about this since I haven't updated in a while! : ( )

-

_**Cora**_

I felt something strange as I woke up; different. The haziness that I had grown to expect was still present, but I didn't feel like I was about to snap right back out of it again – did this mean they didn't drug me this morning? I figured that if this was the case, it meant that they'd want to see more of my powers. I was _not_ looking forward to sorer arms.

I pushed my tongue across my bottom lip. The small raised line I could feel from the split a little over a week ago had healed nicely; I couldn't feel the bruise underneath it anymore, which was good. I had no idea what it looks like, though. I haven't seen a mirror in days.

Wait. What's _that_? What am I _tasting_? I ran my tongue across my upper lip now. I didn't taste salt; I was tasting _nothing_. Confused now, I brought my hand up to my forehead. It was cool – my fever is gone, or at least it's a lot lower than it was. What was going on? I opened my eyes a little more and was met with a shock. I didn't see any other tanks. I wasn't even in the room in Denman's lab anymore that I had been in for days. I looked around a little more. I recognized this place; Have I been here before…?

I have. I _have_ been here before. This isn't the room I had been in – this wasn't in Denman's lab at all. This was Max's test-pool!

I pressed my tail down against the bottom of the tank to raise myself up straight and looked up through the water. This was definitely Max's test pool, there was no top on it and it is much bigger than the tank I had been kept in. What did I do last night? What happened, and why am I here?! I felt my nerves kick in full force: If I am here, where are the girls? Are they safe? Has Denman found out about them? Did I mess up on the polygraph after all, and Denman had gotten them? Worst case scenarios were spinning in my head so fast that it almost made me dizzy.

Then I saw something very familiar, something very comforting through the glass. Lewis was standing outside the opposite end of the tank with his hand resting on the glass. I couldn't be sure if it were really him, or if I were hallucinating. I hear that before you die, you see something that comforts you. I felt more awake than I had in days, even if that wasn't saying much, but I couldn't deny the haziness in my brain. Without even realizing what I was doing, I felt myself moving across to the other side of the tank towards him. My tail was propelling me, albeit propelling me very _slowly_ to the other side. I saw him smile a little and couldn't help but smile back; still not knowing if I was dreaming or not. I pushed my own hand up against the glass from the inside and smiled a little. I guess if I was still going to die, then this was a nice hallucination to have.

I was tired, really very tired, but I already felt worlds better than I had before. What was happening? I couldn't understand. After another second or two, Lewis held up his index finger, telling me to wait for a minute. I saw him grab a small pad of paper and start scribbling on it, before he held the message up to the glass so that I could see.

'Do you feel okay enough to make it to the surface? You need to sleep.'

I paused for a minute and then nodded. I looked upwards; the surface of the water was a good 10 feet above my head and I was certainly woozy, but I didn't think it would be too bad. Besides, if this is a dream then moving around should be easier, right?

Wrong. Even with my arms back against my sides, I could still feel how sore they were while I swam. My tail was still sore from rubbing against the sides of the tank Denman had kept me in, not to mention the hunk of scales she had removed a few days ago. Strange; I thought that in dreams, you couldn't feel pain. I've never felt pain in dreams before now…

It took me a few seconds to make the 10 foot upward swim and when I made it to the top I very carefully broke the surface. It felt strange to be above water for the first time in a week, and I gripped the side of the pool to steady myself. I immediately felt hands on my arms and flinched out of habit, but this time when I looked up at the person pulling me out of the pool, it wasn't Denman's burly security guard – it was Lewis. I felt myself smile a little, but before I knew it the residual tiredness added to the out-of-water dizziness I was feeling had taken over, and I was slipping back into the uncomfortable darkness I had gotten to know over the past few days.

Oh well, so much for the nice dream I was having.

-

_**Rikki**_

I was tired of pacing. Okay, maybe Zane had _made_ me stop pacing, but seeing as I had been doing so for a few hours maybe it was time to stop after all. I couldn't help it, I was nervous. I glanced around the room. Nobody had slept yet, for the second night in a row. Nobody wanted to. We all knew she wouldn't die, but we all got even more nervous once we got Cora back to Max's place and he was able to confirm that yes, she'd been drugged and probably had been constantly for a week – not good. I sighed and looked at her lying in bed that Max had set up hospital-style. What she needed was a _real_ hospital, but it wasn't exactly like we could just take her to one.

I sighed. I knew she'd forgive me even if I didn't apologize, even though _obviously_ I would apologize, but I can't believe that I was _this wrong_ about her. I've never been this wrong about anybody before, in fact, I'm pretty damn good at being right about people. This whole mess is my doing. Maybe it's the stupid over-emotional mermaid in me, but I _do_ feel a weird connection to this girl; I know Cleo does too, Emma also. I can read them like books, even if they think I'm not paying attention. I guess what I really want is just for Cora to be okay. First my dad's heart attack and now this?

Max had made some really strong tea for us to help us stay awake. Mine had been gone and now I was on my second cup. I peered into Zane's mug next to mine – he was a lightweight; half a cup and he was jittery already. Pff. When I was done with this one, I'd finish off his too.

_**Cleo**_

I was beginning to get sleepy. Sure, last night after we had all planned out how to save Cora I had gone home and slept for 12 straight hours – skipping three classes in the process. Oh well, these absences are more than justified, I think! I yawned and leaned against Nate who was sitting with me on the small sofa just outside of the spare room that Max had set up for Cora. This whole situation might have been stressful, but I was thankful that he was there. It was because of him that we were able to get Cora into the test pool right away instead of waiting, and because Cora is his friend he was spending the night waiting up with us. I felt him shyly put an arm around my shoulder and blushed. Things were turning out all right after all! And people say I'm 'too optimistic.' Well, _HA_!

I looked around the room that we were sitting in and smiled a little. This group had really come together: Ash had come to stay up with Emma and to, finally, meet the "problematic" mermaid he had heard us talk about, Zane was as determined to make things right as Rikki was and so the two of them have been taking turns pacing around waiting for Cora to wake up, and Nate had stayed with me. I peeked around the corner into the bedroom. My best friend was sitting up in a chair next to the bed, keeping himself awake by messing around on his laptop – probably playing games, knowing Lewis. I smiled a little. This whole time, he has never left Cora. Not once. He stayed with her outside the test-pool until she came to, and now he'd been sitting up for the rest of the morning waiting for her to wake up again. He really cared about this one, I could tell. Weirdly enough, something inside me knows that she feels the same. I don't know what it is – the mermaid connection, maybe? Hopefully if that's what it is, it'll get even stronger once Cora wakes up and we move past this and let her know that we really do want her around. Things are working out after all.

_**Lewis**_

Max came in a few minutes ago and gave me explicit directions for when Cora wakes up: do NOT get her worked up, and keep her in bed. I give him a lot of credit for staying up at long as he has, but he's 65 years old and at this point in the morning it was way past his 'bedtime.' Now that he was sleeping, I was in charge. A scary thought, but this is important. I just got her back, I'm not going to screw up immediately. It had been about an hour since I heard anything out of anybody else, so I put my laptop down and got up and peeked around the corner. Everyone was asleep. Everyone, even Emma. No wonder I hadn't heard anything out of them. Oh well. They've earned it, and besides I've handled 3 mermaids for 3 years now, I don't think handling just one can be nearly as hard. I heard the bed sheets shuffling around from behind me and when I turned I was half relieved and half surprised. Cora was awake, which was a good thing. However, she had already tossed the sheets off of herself and climbed out of bed and was looking around very nervously – not good.

"Lewis?" I heard her say. Yup, she's definitely confused… I smiled a little and walked up to her.

"Hey, I'm glad you're awake. You've gotta stay in bed, though, you shouldn't be up and around just yet." I put my hand on her shoulder and gently turned her around back towards the bed and sat her down. She still looked lost, "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"Lewis… this isn't a dream, is it." It wasn't really a question the way she said it. I didn't want to lie to her, but I remembered my instructions not to get her worked up; I had already let her get out of bed.

"Nope, not a dream. You're at Max's place, safe and sound." I tried to keep my voice calm, hoping that it would keep her calm but boy was I wrong. I watched her eyes bulge slightly and she looked down at the pajamas she was in.

"Why?! Where's Denman, where are the girls – are they okay? And whose _clothes_ are these?!"

Well…so much for keeping her calm. But I figured she would have questions, and the least I could do at this point was give her what she wanted.

"Well... we took you out of Denman's lab last night, Cora. They were going to kill you, and we weren't going to let that happen. The girls are fine, they're all here, too. So are Nate, Ash and Zane. And I think those are Cleo's."

"Denman wouldn't let it happen, she'd be looking for me; if she finds out then she's going to come after them too. I have to go back…"

"Whoa… Cora, I know you're a little frazzled right now and I understand, but… there is absolutely no way you're going back. As a matter of fact… there's nowhere for you to go back to, heh. Don't worry, she's not going to come looking for you." I explained. She stared hard at me and raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean there's nowhere to go back to? Why won't she come looking?"

Uh oh. This was the part that I knew would probably work her up – something I had specifically been told not to do – but she deserved answers.

"She kind of… thinks you're dead already, probably."

"Why does she think that I'm already dead, Lewis? What did you guys do?"

"Uh. Well? Please try to stay calm, Cora, you've had a rough week and we need to keep your stress levels down, okay?"

"Please, tell me. I'm already stressed, it won't matter."

"The girls started a storm… and Rikki burned the lab down. We made it look like a lightning fire. The whole thing is gone, she'll assume that you were lost with the rest of her 'property.'" I watched her face drop and she lurched forward a little bit. Uh oh… here it comes.

"You _what_?! Was anybody inside? Were they hurt? She'll be _furious_, so much of that stuff was so expensive…" She rambled, panicked for a few more seconds and I just stared at her. The Protector in her was still going; leave it to a mermaid to worry about the safety of people who wanted to _kill_ her.

"No no, shh, Cora you need to calm down. It's okay, everybody is fine," I smiled a little and helped her lean back again. I could tell by looking at her face that it would take a while for everything to sink in, and a while for her to relax. She sighed and closed her eyes and let her head flop back against the pillow. I smirked a little, watching her, and reached out to tuck a loose piece of hair behind her ear. I saw her eyes slide open and her cheeks went pink. I felt my smile get wider. A week ago, I would have taken my hand away and run out of the room while punching myself in the face at the same time. But it didn't matter to me anymore; I almost lost this girl for good once, I was going to do things right this time, "Stay here for now, okay? And I'll take you home tonight."

She was quiet for a minute, and then I heard her speak again.

"Did you make the girls help you, Lewis? They shouldn't have had to; you shouldn't have had to."

"What are you talking about? Of course I didn't _make_ them help me. And there was no chance I was going to let you die in there, Cora."

"It's okay. I know they couldn't have wanted to, but I'll fix this soon."

"I don't want you 'fixing' anything else for a long time. I won't have you getting yourself hurt again, Cora." I didn't yell at her, but I tried to use the sternest voice I could to let her know that I was serious. She smiled a little, still looking down and changed the subject, like I figured she might.

"It was dangerous. None of you should have been anywhere near that place. I tried to keep you out, but it didn't work… I couldn't keep my focus, it's my fault for screwing that up. Denman had what she wanted, and wasn't looking for Emma Cleo or Rikki anymore. That was the goal, and it was working. She was planning to move her team to Canada on Monday…"

"Canada?" I questioned. What in the world was she talking about?

"It's a long story..." She muttered. I stared at her for a second. I'd let it go for the moment and would ask her about it later.

"All that matters is that you're safe, and so is everyone else. Everything is fine, now. Get some rest, all right? We can all talk this over together when you're feeling better."

"I feel fine now, Lewis… Really, I should get out of here." Her voice was quiet, and from her tone I couldn't tell exactly what she meant. All I knew was that I needed her to stay put – I was determined to make things better. A lot of mistakes have been made, but I know that my friends wanted to redeem themselves and that they wanted to make it up to Cora. I knew Cora wouldn't have it, but that's why I wouldn't tell her just yet. No need to stress her out more than I already have. I picked up the mug of fresh tea that I had brought in for her not too long ago and held it out to her carefully.

"You're not fine yet, but you will be soon, we'll make sure of it." I smiled and watched her take a sip, and then she blinked up at me knowingly.

"You haven't slept, have you." Again, it wasn't a question. She had caught me.

"I had something important to handle," I saw the blush creep back onto her face, "But now that it's been taken care of, there's nothing to worry about."

"Lewis… will you do something for me, please?"

"Sure."

"Please take a nap. I don't want to be the reason you get sick from not sleeping."

Ever the Protector, she is, but I guess that's one of the reasons why I like her so much – she cares so much for the people around her. Did I want to sleep? No. But I did know that if I slept, it would put her more at ease – and if it kept her calm, then so be it.

"All right. You get some rest too, though, all right? And later on we can all have a serious talk and I'll take you home." I said. She smiled, but said nothing. I stood up from my seat on the edge of the bed and looked down at her. In another bold act, I leaned down and kissed the top of her head before standing up straight and starting to walk towards the door. Before I closed it behind me I took one last look of her: she was smiling shyly and her cheeks had gone even more red.

Maybe I wasn't so bad at this girl thing after all?

_**A few hours later – Cleo**_

I hadn't even realized I had fallen asleep! I mean, I knew I was tired and everything but when I pulled out my phone and checked the time I realized that I had been asleep for 4 hours. I glanced around the room and saw that everyone else was still asleep, except for Nate who had woken up when I started moving around, I guess. I looked across the room and found Lewis – he was sprawled out on the recliner, 100% knocked-out sleeping. I smirked a little, but then realized something. The only way he would have left Cora was if he were sure she was all right. The fact that he was out here meant that she must have woken up!

"Hey… Look at him." I whispered to Nate, trying not to wake anyone else. He glanced across the room at Lewis and looked surprised.

"She must've been awake then, yeah?"

"Yup. I'm going to go check on her and see if she's up." I smiled and pushed myself off the couch and crossed the room to the now closed bedroom door. I gripped the handle and pushed it open slowly, just in case she was still sleeping. Then I poked my head in, and got yet another surprise. She wasn't sleeping… or awake. The bed was made neatly but she wasn't in it. She was gone, "Oh, no."

-

A/N: Sorry for the delay, again! : ] Where did Cora go? What will Denman do; stay and look for them all, or leave the Gold Coast? Find out all of this and see lots of apologies in chapter 19 : ] 66 reviews before I put it up!


	19. I'm Sorry

**A/N:** Hey guys! Sorry again for the delay, college is busy busy busy as it always is, but I've been writing/editing in a lot of my free time just to keep up and it's been pleasant! : ] Here's chapter 19! To those of you who were wondering, yes, there will only be another chapter or so of this story so yes indeed, it's coming to an end soon. But, not yet! : D **Enjoy guys, please review for the next chapter!** : ]

Oh! And **to the very nice girl who asked if I could upload the characters from Belonging onto the Sims 3 exchange**!: I'm working on it, I swear I haven't forgotten. I've been really busy and my internet is really slow at school, but they're coming. I will find the time (between classes, school, friends, and trying to eat 2 meals a day, and going to the gym as often as humanly possible) to upload them soon, but it may have to wait until I go home - and I'm not sure when that will be yet! But they're coming!

-

_**Cora**_

I knew I shouldn't be anywhere _near_ here, but I had to come. I had to see what damage had been done on my account. Thankfully, there hadn't been a whole lot of people out on the streets so I had been able to get back to my apartment in Cleo's pajamas without getting too many strange glances. But, I still managed to get two or three – and I'm pretty sure that was enough for me. I made a mental note to return the pajamas as I squinted my way back to my condo. My eyes are killing me; I haven't seen sunlight in days and it is taking a while for my eyes to readjust.

I barely even realized what I was doing as I changed my clothes to hide a few odd bruises I found on my arms and chest and hurried back out the door. I am exhausted mentally and physically, and I'm sure my appearance reflects it. I don't even want to think about how much of a damn mess I must look, but I looking a mess is the least of my problems. I can't tap into my visions, _or_ into my telekinesis, and I can't focus on anything. I have no clue what has happened or what is _going_ to happen, and my mind is moving so fast and in so many different directions that I feel like I'm short-circuiting. I am out of Denman's lab – Lewis had come for me. Not only that, but he had said that the girls had helped him. Now I was even more confused. I had learned that Lewis cared about me – 'why?' is something I'm still not sure about – but I know that the girls think I'm the devil.

This leads me to believe that Lewis forced them to help. Well… I don't think Lewis is exactly a person who forces others into doing things, but this was really the only explanation that I could come up with. If it were true then this was _not_ good, and I know that they must not be happy about it. That probably means that there are more burns, guns, and generally unhappy people coming my way very soon. Zane had mentioned that 'next time' I wouldn't be so lucky, and I think that this _is_ 'next time.' I know that Lewis only wanted to help me; I don't even know how he found out where I was. But he was the second part of what helped me come to the decision to turn myself in, in the first place: first was the welfare of Cleo, Rikki and Emma by getting Denman off of their trail and away from them. Then there was Lewis – he deserves better than this chaos, better than _me_. He deserves _normalcy_. He has so much to offer, and what do I have to offer in return? Not a thing. Guys like him don't go for chicks like me.

It's about 4 o' clock now so the sun is just beginning to come down in the sky but it is still intensely bright – at least to me – as I hurry across town to the place that two weeks ago I was an intern. I gulped when I got close enough. Grouped around the gate that led to what was the property of Denman's lab were several people, none of whom I recognized thankfully; I assumed that these were the people who owned shops or worked in the buildings nearby. I got closer to them and stood at the back of the crowd silently and stuffed my hands into my pockets. My eyes bulged when I looked up. The entire building was in ruins – completely destroyed.

Something made me take a few steps closer through the group of strangers until I stood at the front. I was staring at utter destruction in front of me. The entire building is in charred black ruins, and what's left is still smoking even now; though I realized had no concept of how many hours ago Lewis and the girls had come to get me. I wobbled unsteadily and my hand out up against the brick wall to hold myself up. Now I had to face the fact at hand. Something had been destroyed because of _me_. I know that Linda Denman is far from a former girl-scout, but I wouldn't wish this on anybody. I was thankful that no one was hurt in the fire, but I don't think that even _Denman_ deserves their livelihood destroyed, right? She was still a _person_, albeit a terrible one. Something inside of me was still compelling me to help, even though I knew that the damage had already been done – even though there wasn't anything I could do, here. I figured that regardless of whether they thought I was alive or dead, Denman and her team would still go on the wild goose-chase up to the Hudson Bay.

I sighed and stared across the charred property. What the hell is _wrong_ with me? Obviously something seeing as I was feeling bad for Denman, but at the moment I could put it aside. The damage had been done and the problem had been solved – Denman was leaving – so my job here in Australia was done. I could, and probably _should_ leave. But where can I go? Staying here would probably not be the smartest thing for me to do, even though it _is_ beautiful and I've already got a job and a place to stay, but there isn't really anyone or anything left for me in California. Maybe I could work on moving to a different part of Australia? I had a lot to think about right now. I turned around to begin walking back home and immediately heard a voice that made me stop in my tracks.

"I thought you might be here."

I turned quickly and saw someone I did not expect to see and jumped a little, startled. I stumbled a little again but righted myself as fast as I could. Standing right in front of me was Rikki, and I had no idea how long she had been standing behind me.

"Rikki… I-I was just leaving, I swear…" I couldn't even believe I was able to form the words. I feel like I'm on another planet and my head is throbbing so hard that it feels like my mouth and my brain are a million miles apart.

"You had us all pretty nervous, Cora. We've got to get you back, now –" I watched her reach out to take my arm and I flinched prematurely. The discomfort from even that small movement in my arm almost made me regret it, but I _really_ didn't want to be burned again.

"Please, don't… I really am leaving, I promise." To show her that I was serious I started walking down the sidewalk back in the direction of my condo without another word. I made it a few yards before I felt somebody's presence at my side again and my body tensed hard. I felt myself try to walk faster but my muscles just didn't have it in them. They were weak and they felt even less steady now.

"Cora…" Rikki's voice sounded different this time; it didn't sound as harsh as it had the last time we'd spoken. It crossed my mind that something might be wrong and I got a slight dull ache in my stomach. I couldn't place where the ache had come from – nerves, maybe? I have a lot of those, I guess. This girl could turn me into a fish-stick in 5 seconds if she wanted to. I made my legs keep carrying me even though I had the strongest urge to collapse. I only had a few blocks to go. "Cora, please," I heard her voice again, and her tone made me slow to a stop.

"What's the matter?" I asked quietly, but kept my hands in my pockets and made sure that she had an ample amount of personal space. I really didn't want her to feel like I was threatening her again. That night that Zane had pulled me aside in the basketball court was the first time in my 20 years that I had actually really feared for my life and I had a feeling that if I made the wrong movement here then I really _wouldn't_ be so lucky again.

"What…? Whaddya mean, 'what's the matter?'" She looked confused and raised her eyebrows, but then her face quickly relaxed back into understanding, "Oh right, the Protector thing. Look, Cora… we all really need to talk - badly. You shouldn't even be up and around yet after what that bitch did to you. I'll take you back home and we'll have them meet us there."

I blinked and squinted against the setting but still powerful sun. I was a little dizzy and I'm not sure I heard her correctly, and I also didn't know what 'protector thing' she was talking about.

"I don't understand, sorry…"

"Please, Cora – I'm asking you to please come with me so that you can rest and so that we can all sit down and talk."

Yep, that was what I heard. But why did they want that? I was lost, but she was asking me to do something and something powerful in me wouldn't let me say no, even though all I wanted to right now was turn and get out of her way.

"Okay." I agreed. Even though we were standing perfectly still, I stumbled a little again. I was having issues carrying my own weight, but didn't think too much of it, '_Good job staying on your own two feet there, Cora…_' I thought. I'm sure it's not a big deal - I'm kind of clumsy anyway, it's nothing _new_. I saw Rikki reach out again and I instinctively took another little step back. I had told her that I'd go with her - she didn't have a reason to burn me, I don't _think_, anyway. I heard her sigh again.

"I should have expected that. 'Guess I deserve it… " I heard her mumble and then start again, "I'm not going to burn you, I promise. But you can't even hold yourself on your own legs right now. Zane is parked around the corner, and I just want to help you walk back there. Will you let me?"

I blinked at her curiously for a second and finally nodded. I was a little nervous, but I let her turn me around and lead me back around the corner.

-

_**Meanwhile – Lewis**_

I shouldn't have even gone to sleep. The reason she was able to leave is because I left my post and went to sleep. I could have made it a few more hours I'm sure; I've pulled all nighters for _days_ in a row for school before, so this could not have been too much different. I'm a little frazzled, but Rikki was the first person to speak up and say that she had a pretty good idea of where Cora might have gone and so I let her go. I'm still kinda mad at her, sure. But, she's showing me that she really has changed, and it's a relief. A little while ago she had sent all of us a mass text telling us to meet back at Cora's condo, and I hoped this was a good sign. I shoved my hair off of my forehead and sighed, returning to my pacing-spot in front of the door. I was nervous, and I wanted her to finally be safe; this girl was a catch – if I could _catch_ her, that is. Why do mermaids have to be so difficult? Protectors, anyway. Why couldn't she be good at protecting herself? Then I heard Emma from where she stood with Ash at Cora's living room window.

"They're back, Lewis. It looks like Rikki found her."

I let out a sigh of relief and turned to face the door just in time to see Zane coming through the front door, followed by Rikki with Cora. I dropped my hands back to my side and hurried over to Cora who looked nervous and took her from Rikki, leading her to the couch that Nate and Cleo were seated on and sat her down. I sat on the other side of her.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"I'm fine, Lewis. I'm sorry I ran off, but after what you told me… I really needed to see it for myself. I would have come back, but I just… I just had to see it."

"All right. And I understand, but you really shouldn't have been over there, especially by yourself. You're going to need to rest for a few days."

"I don't really think that's totally—"

"Cora, please. If it helps, you'd be doing it for us." I knew it was pretty low of me to take it to _that_ level, given that she's a Protector and now she'd _have_ to do whatever we asked her to do, but whatever kept her off her feet and resting was what I was going to do and say. I watched as she opened her mouth to respond but closed it again quickly in resignation. It had worked, unfair as it was. Effectiveness before elegance, I always say.

I looked around the room and figured she may be a little overwhelmed by the number of people in her living room, "Cora, this is Ash, Emma's boyfriend. Ash, this is Cora. And I know you've '_met_,' but formally: Cora, this is Zane. And you already know the girls." Okay, so I was still kind of bitter and I would hit Zane again in a heartbeat, but there were other matters at hand and he appeared to be really trying not to be a tool for once. I saw Cora smile a little at Ash and even Zane, even though he didn't deserve it. Now was the next item of business – I looked over at Rikki. She squirmed slightly where she was perched on the arm of the chair that Zane sat in and stood up.

"Look, Cora… I have a lot that I want to say to you, but the biggest thing is that I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry. I was completely wrong about you; I kinda thought that you were just another psycho mermaid hell-bent on killing us and had Lewis wrapped around your little finger," I felt my face get hot and felt Cora shift uncomfortably next to me, probably trying to hide her own blush. Rikki doesn't have the most charming way with words… "But I was wrong. I didn't even give a chance to the thought that you were telling the truth about Denman and about what you were trying to do, even though all of the signs were there – I just ignored them like an idiot. It's my fault that Zane came after you that night, and I did nothing to help or stop it. You should know that I'm not so great with apologies, but this is one time that I really know needs one. I'm really, really sorry. This whole thing is my fault, and I'm hoping that you can forgive me for it."

"And I'm hoping you'll give me another shot. I mean, I know first impressions last and everything, but what I did to you that night… that wasn't me. I can be a jerk sometimes, but that night I was completely out of line and I was just as caught up in the mess as the rest of the girls were. I feel really bad about what I did, and I can't even tell you how sorry I am. I know I messed up – I messed up badly. But I feel like hell because of it, and I want you to know that I'm really sorry, too. I hope that eventually you'll be able to forgive me."

The room was quiet for a minute and I heard nothing out of Cora. I turned to look at her face and her expression was completely blank – confused, surprised, exhausted, shocked and I didn't even know what else, but she was silent for a while.

"Of course I forgive you… Both of you."

They were lucky, because if Cora didn't forgive them, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to either. But we all knew Cora would forgive them – she didn't know how to do anything else. Thankfully, Cleo broke the quiet and spoke up next.

"It's not just Rikki, Cora, just so you know. All of us are sorry, we were just so paranoid after what happened with Charlotte that we all kind of kept our guard up. We can't believe the length you went to for us. We can't even begin to thank you for it, even though we wish you hadn't done it."

I looked at Cora's face again – Cleo's comment seems to have made her even more lost.

"Really, guys, it's okay. It's over now." I heard her say. I raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything; I'd talk to her later when it was just the two of us. It was quiet for another second and then I heard Emma.

"Cora? Why did you do it..? Hand yourself over to Denman, that is."

"I had to."

"But why? I'm grateful and everything, but when you moved here you didn't know us. Why did we matter to you?" Emma asked. I waited and looked at Cora, who was quiet while it looked like she was trying to gather her thoughts. I didn't want them to bombard her with questions right now, I had no idea how dizzy she is or how much pain she's in, but I want to know too. I want to hear how she explains it, since I still haven't had the chance to explain her Protector status to her. I want to hear it in her own words. Finally, she spoke.

"The three of you have been in this together from the start. I may not have known you, but I knew how close you are and how important you are to each other. With this kind of life, you need each other more than you know. I know this is going to sound pretty stupid, and I'm sorry in advance, but I lost a sister, Emma. There is no way I could have let any of the three of you feel that kind of pain."

Bam. I knew she had known somehow, even if she didn't know exactly what it was about her that wanted to keep them safe. But I was going to cut off the questions. She needs to rest now and I need to talk to her for a little while.

"Okay guys, I think we should let Cora get some rest now."

I heard a jumbled murmur of responses that agreed and everyone around us started getting up. After a minute or so of goodbyes, it was just Cora and I left sitting on her living room couch. I turned and looked at her and immediately recognized the look on her face – this was her overwhelmed face. I figured I'd be seeing it sooner or later. I smirked a little when she realized I was looking at her and her mouth turned half up in a cute sleepy smile. I sighed a little to brace myself and looked down at my hands. Now it was _my_ turn to talk to her.

-

**A/N**: Find out what Lewis wants to talk to Cora about in the next chapter! How will the girls react to Cora now, and how will Cora react to the girls' sudden change of heart? Does Cora decide to pack up and leave the Gold Coast? **All this and a cute idea from Cleo in chapter 20! Review, please : ]**


	20. More Than a SideShow

**A/N**: Chapter 19, up much sooner than I expected! Haha, I'm working as hard as I can for you guys : ] Lewis talks to Cora… what happens? Do they end up together, or will Cora leave like she planned? Keep onnnn reading! **I'm hoping to get to 74 reviews before chapter 20 comes out!** I've actually decided to add more chapters than I originally had planned, so even though this story is coming to a close, it's longer than I had planned already! = D I'm just having so much fun with it. Take care guys, read, enjoy and review!

-

Lewis stared at Cora for a brief time before mustering up the courage to start talking.

"I guess you already know, but… I want to talk to you."

"I thought you might…" She replied quietly. Her smile was still there but it had fallen a little and looks sad as she looked down at her hands in her lap.

"You thought right. Well… it's nothing bad – I hope not, anyway. There are a few things really, but I think I should start with something I'd been meaning to tell you before this whole mess started. Max and I figured out the differences between your powers and the girls' powers, Cora. In a nutshell, you're what's called a Protector – you're hardwired to keep everyone around you safe, especially other mermaids. The girls are Defenders, whose goal is to keep each other out of harm's way and to trust each other unconditionally. What I'm trying to get to, is that I know why you felt so strongly that you had to keep Cleo, Emma and Rikki safe, and why you take care of everyone around you." He explained, knowing that it would be simple enough for her to follow even though she was exhausted. He watched her smirk sadly and she continued to fumble with her hands.

"Another score for the freak-show."

"Hey, don't talk like that. You're not a 'freak show' at all; I just wish I could have told you about what was compelling you to do what you did before you did it rather than now. You could have been killed, and I know that you know that. But what you said to Cleo before… you said that it was okay." He said, trying to piece his words together carefully.

"Well…Yeah." She replied slowly, but confidently – wasn't that much obvious?

"You were going to die for people that treated you like that?" He questioned. He knew she was a Protector and that should have been enough – he was a scientist, and that was the 'scientific' explanation. But it wasn't enough.

"It's hard to explain, Lewis. This…mermaid thing," she started, gesturing at her legs where her tail formed, "it's bigger than me; it's bigger than a lot of things. What I did was just something that I was meant to do. It was my job."

"But if you just dropped off the face of the Earth, what would people say?" He asked. She glanced up at him briefly and smiled tiredly before letting her gaze fall again.

"People wouldn't _say_ anything, Lewis." She began. He stared at her hard and raised an eyebrow. Seeing that he wanted an explanation she shifted slightly in her seat and bit her lip and began to explain herself methodically, "See… I thought about a lot of things before I went to Denman, and that was one of them. But think about it this way: My family is gone. I'm new here. I don't really have any friends, here or back in California. At work, once I didn't show up for a week or two they'd just take me off of the payroll and hire somebody else. So, there wouldn't have _been_ anybody to say anything." He kept staring at her as he listened and shook his head slightly, turning to the side on the couch to face her. Her voice was clear despite how tired she was as she explained what she assumed was obvious logic. She really thought that nobody would notice she were gone, but he knew that at least one person would.

"Well, what about me? I noticed right away that you were missing, Cora. I was worried sick – you don't even want to know what I was thinking. Once I told the girls you were missing, they were worried, too." He raised the question curiously and found himself surprised again when she picked her head up and stared at him with a look of complete confusion on her face.

"But that wouldn't have lasted forever, Lewis."

"What do you mean?"

"Well… I figured that after a couple of weeks that you'd just assume that I moved again and left town."

"You think that I'd forget about you just like that?" Lewis stared blankly at her, and she raised her eyebrow slightly in response, blinking at him curiously.

"Well… yeah." Her words were slow and deliberate – these things that seemed obvious to her were far from clear to Lewis.

"How could I? _Why_ would I? I think I made it pretty clear that I like you, Cora - a lot. I care a lot about you, why the hell would I just _forget_ all about you?" His voice had raised slightly. He wasn't yelling, he didn't have a reason to. But he badly wanted to understand what was going on in her head. She was quiet for a second and let her head rest tiredly against her arm which she had propped up on the back of the couch. Finally, she sighed quietly and briefly let her brown eyes close.

"Honestly…? I was thinking that you would come to your senses." Her mouth had twitched up slightly on one side into the slight half-smirk that Lewis loved, but knew was a strain for her at this point. Regardless, he hadn't liked or understood what he had just heard.

"Come to my _senses_?"

"Lewis," She began, letting her eyes droop closed briefly again, "I know you know that I like you a lot, too - and I care a _ton_ about you. But, I care enough to know that you deserve a lot better, and I know that you'll realize that soon if you haven't already." She was amazed at her ability to even be able to talk about this with him; she was usually so nervous around him that any romantic implication, no matter how slight would make her face flare up with heat and give her the urge to run away and hide from embarrassment. At this point, however, she was too exhausted to let it matter. If she made an embarrassment of herself now, it was okay. The way she saw it was that the damage had already been done at this point. She had done what she had come to do, and as strongly as she felt for him, the sooner Lewis moved on the better.

"'Better'? Better _how_, Cora?"

"I'm a _side-show act_, Lewis. You… you deserve somebody _wonderful_, somebody normal without all this chaos around them and without all the problems that I've been causing between you and your best friends."

"Cora that's not true, don't say things like that. You _aren't_ a side-show act, you _are_ wonderful and you _are_ normal, and I wouldn't change you for the world," Lewis side and propped his elbow up on the back of the couch and pushed his hair back and sighed. He was just going to come right out and say it, there was no other way, "I know you don't believe it, but there are people here that care about you and we don't want you to disappear again. _I_ don't want you to disappear again, Cora; I want you to be with me." The room was dead silent for a full minute before Lewis realized what was happening. Cora's head was still propped up against her arm, but there was something wrong; her shy smirk had gone sad and her eyes were cast down but there was something wrong. They were brimming with tears. Lewis stiffened a little bit and his nerves peaked – he had finally managed to ask the girl out, and he made her cry. He scooted closer carefully, looking down at her, "I'm sorry… Did I say something wrong?" She bit her bottom lip and shook her head once.

"It's not that, Lewis."

"Then what's the matter? Are you okay…?"

"5 years ago when I became a mermaid I accepted a lot of things would change. I told myself that there were a lot of things that would never be the same, and that there were some things that I wouldn't be able to do that I had always really wanted to do. I wanted to be normal; I wanted to have friends, and go to parties. I wanted to have crushes and go on dates, I wanted to get older and be able to get married and have a family. I wanted all of that, but after I changed I realized that it wasn't feasible anymore. At first, it hurt to know that I would be on my own – it hurt a lot. But as the years went by it just became _life_, you know? I got so used to it. I'd always had a job, and when I wasn't working I was studying so that not having friends didn't make me feel like such an outcast. I learned pretty quickly that getting crushes on anybody was pretty pointless, too. Since dating was out of the question it only ever ended in me getting upset, which was dumb. I never figured it would be an issue – I've made it this far without anything happening. I've never had a boyfriend, I've never been asked on a date - nothing. This is horribly embarrassing and it was probably obvious, but _that_ was my first kiss. I thought that maybe this time getting a crush wouldn't be so bad since it's been 5 years and I know that I can't have anyone and it wouldn't be a big deal. I never thought in a million years that somebody would want me _back_, but…" She spoke very slowly, trying to form her words and ideas carefully and forcing through the exhaustion that had crept into every nook and cranny in her body. He deserved an explanation, he deserved the truth and she didn't want anything to come out the wrong way – not for somebody like him.

"But what?" His voice was much softer now, but he had taken in every word of what she had said. He may not have agreed with it, but he wanted her to finish.

"But, I'm no good to you or the girls anymore. Or to anyone, now." She said quietly, finally bringing her eyes up to look at him. Lewis hadn't known what he had expected her to say, but it certainly wasn't that.

"What do you mean by that?"

"My powers aren't working, Lewis. I did my job, so I think… I think they're gone. There's no way I would be able to look after you anymore, or the girls." She explained, looking down again. Her sad smirk had returned, and there was something in it that Lewis had seen in his own face before – regret. Despite what she had just told him about her powers not working, he felt a slow smile spread onto his face. This girl was unbelievable - she thought he only wanted her around to take care of him, and now that her powers weren't working he was supposed to change his mind? He shook his head slightly and let his smile grow. For as brilliant as she was, there was so much that she didn't understand. It was a shame that the reason why she didn't understand was because she had isolated herself from so much for so long, but not anymore. He was beaming now as he lowered his head a little to be level with hers and sat up straight, taking his arm off of the back of the couch and faced her again. Grabbing her was out of the question; she looked delicate right now, and he realized that she couldn't hold herself up – that's why she had been leaning across the back of the couch, not because it was more comfortable. To him, it looked like she were about to evaporate into the air around them any second. His smile faltered a little sadly when he realized how weak she really was at that moment, but he reached out very carefully and put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her gently to help her sit upright.

"That's not how relationships work, yanno. I don't want you around because of your powers, Cora." He muttered quietly enough for her to barely hear him and smiled a little. Being careful not to hurt her, he picked her head up in his hands gently and leaned down lightly pressing his lips against hers. He was glad that even though she was literally collapsing in his arms, she kissed him back; they finally had each other. After a few moments they cautiously pulled away and Lewis helped her back into her position leaning on her side facing him. He sighed quietly and looked down at her, "You need to get in bed. I shouldn't have kept you awake for this long."

"Soon." She replied softly. Her eyes were closed now and her head was laying sideways on top of her arm. He examined her still form briefly and wrinkled his forehead. He didn't want to keep her awake any longer, but there was something else he had been wondering about that could be making her weakness worse.

"Did they let you eat while you were there?" Lewis asked quietly. He was met with silence. He sighed and decided that since he had already been to this low level a few times, he might as well go there again. If this worked, it meant her Protector status was still in force, which meant that possibly her powers weren't gone forever, "It would help me out a lot if you would tell me. Did they feed you?"

"No, but I'm good." She responded tiredly finally after a few seconds. It had worked and though that was a good sign, Lewis let his blue eyes widen in disbelief and anger wildly swam in his head as he watched her slumped against the back of the couch. She still hadn't moved and her eyes were still closed.

"You _can't_ move, can you." Lewis said. It wasn't a question.

"I can, I just need a minute..."

"I don't believe you." He raised an eyebrow and watched her carefully. He was nervous – he had thought the hard part was over, but she looked really out of it now and he hoped that she'd be able to make it.

"I can, really. You should go home, Lewis. You need to sleep more than I do." Another blatant untruth. Cora was barely conscious at this point; their conversation had been emotionally draining, and it had taken up the last of what she had left in her.

"Prove it." It was mean, he thought, but again… effectiveness was the most important thing. He kept watching her; she didn't move one inch, not even a twitch as she appeared to be fighting to stay awake. He stood up, getting off of the couch and looked down at her. She must have felt the shifting of the cushions because her eyes slid open slightly and moved around curiously when she realized that Lewis was no longer sitting next to her. He leaned over to pick her up, and the second his hands slipped under her body he felt her tense and grip weakly onto the back-cushions that she was leaning against.

"No no no no. No. Nooo. I'm okay on the couch, I promise. Comfortable - I'm good." Her words were a little bit slurred now, and her eyes bulged slightly. She winced a little bit; she hadn't thought she would have been able to move, but if he thought he was going to try to move her himself then he had another thing coming.

"Why not?"

"You haven't slept in _days, _Lewis, and it's my fault. I don't want it to be my fault when your back and arms break, too." She mumbled, putting her head back down on her arm and speaking into the pillow letting her words come out muffled. Lewis rolled his eyes and smirked, ignoring her and slipped his arms under her body, picking her up and making his way across the living room to put her in her bed.

"You know, sometimes, women are absolutely _ridiculous_…"

_**Cleo**_

I've been doing a lot of thinking since we all left Cora's condo yesterday. I had called Lewis after my date with Nate today to see how his talk with her had gone, and when he told me what she had said about the things she thought she couldn't have I got to thinking. She thought she didn't and couldn't have friends… so what is the best way to let Cora know that we are her friends, and that we want her around us, too? That we do want her to be one of us – _with_ us and not off on her own, especially now that she was powerless (though hopefully only temporarily)? Then it came to me, and I made a phone call and an hour later here I am, off to visit to Max.

I knocked on the door happily and Max let me in and we walked back into his workshop. I must have been smiling, because he spoke first.

"You've got something up your sleeve, haven't you?"

"How did you know?!" I asked, my smile must have been huge by now so I decided to just get to the point, "Max, I need to ask a favor!"

"Sure Cleo. What can I do for ya?" He asked. I grinned and reached for the pendant the hung from my neck and held it up – my third of a matching triplet set that Rikki and Emma had.

"I need you to make one more of these."

I watched a smile spread onto Max's face and I watched the happy wrinkles at the corners of his eyes deepen. Hopefully, this would do the trick! I reached for the back of my neck and unclasped my necklace, taking it off and dropping it into Max's hand.

"Brilliant, Cleo! Coming right up!"

-

**A/N**: Cute idea from Cleo! She's having a necklace made for Cora – what will Emma and Rikki think, and what happens when all four girls meet up again? What's next for Lewis and Cora? Find out in chapter 21, up soon! **74 reviews for chapter 21 my lovelies!** Take care and be well everyone, you're all so wonderful!


	21. Making Things Right II

**A/N**: * IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT AT THE END OF THIS CHAPTER! Hey guys, hope you're all doing well. In this chapter we see Lewis and Cora on their first official day as a couple, how Rikki is really feeling, and the girls coming to a very strange conclusion about the color of Cora's locket-stone. Read and enjoy, everybody – oh, and please remember to read the **A/N** at the end of this chapter!

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_**Rikki**_

I sighed and pulled at the end of my ponytail. Work is usually boring and everything, but after the craziness of the past three days anything was going to seem way more boring now. And taking messages for some overweight bank executive was about as boring as it gets in the first place. I tapped my pen on the desk and looked around the lobby. I don't even know why they needed me today, this place was completely empty and had been pretty much all day. The digital clock at the edge of my desk says 11:50 a.m. – my lunch break is at 12. Well, _my_ watch says it's 11:59 a.m., so I was getting out of here. It's not like Chubby was going to notice if I left a few minutes early anyway. I reached down by my feet and grabbed my bag, hit a button on the phone to send the calls to voicemail and head for the door.

The second I was out on the sidewalk I bumped into somebody who was about to walk into the bank. I almost, _almost_ said something impolite, but I held it back. I was really trying to make an effort to be more tolerant now. I straightened my bag on my shoulder and was about to keep walking, but the person I bumped into spoke.

"Hey, Rikki! I was just coming in to look for you!" It was Cleo. Hey, good thing I didn't say anything mean, right? I smiled at her and motioned for her to walk with me; this jerk only gave me a 30-minute lunch.

"Hey, Cleo. What's up? Done with class, I guess?"

"Yep. But also, I came up with an idea and I wanted to tell you about it!" She was practically beaming. I couldn't help but smile back – that girl's happiness is kind of infectious. She had told me as I was leaving for work about what Lewis had told her on the phone, and it had struck a pretty strong cord with me. I can't deny that I've always been sort of a loner, but that doesn't mean that I've always liked it that way. I don't mind being by myself if I have to be, but I can't imagine never having a break from myself – I'd be sick of me in about three hours. Trying to imagine where Cora was coming from made me think. She felt like because of what she is – of what _we_ are – that she's not supposed to have a normal life and because of it she doesn't really have any friends. I know how that feels; I've never been popular or anything but I've always had a few close people in my life and I've had my rocks for the past three years – Cleo, Emma, Lewis and Zane. When this happened to me, I didn't think that there was a snowball's chance in hell that I would have anything even remotely close to a normal life again. Thankfully, my friends had managed to convince me otherwise. The only difference is that the three of us had each other. The only person that Cora _had_ had was taken away. But we knew that she didn't have to be alone, and we didn't _want_ her to be alone.

I screwed up a lot when it came to Cora and I really want to make things right. Cleo told us that Lewis said that Cora's powers weren't working, even though the Protector in her hadn't let up at all. There really aren't a whole lot of things more dangerous than letting a powerless mermaid wander around by herself; we all knew that and we weren't going to let one of our own out in the world 'unarmed,' so to speak. But I knew that even though she said she forgave us, I knew that she was planning to stay out of our way. I couldn't blame her – after the way we had acted I would probably think I should stay away, too. I wanted her to know that that wasn't true – that we _did_ want her around. But I had no idea how to convince her of it, and when Emma, Cleo and I had talked about it all together they were both stumped, too. We weren't going to consult Lewis this time. This was our job, he had just managed to do his own job – get that girl to date him. I never thought it would happen, but I guess we've got an awkward-puppy couple on our hands now. But it sounds like Cleo has an idea about what we can do, and I'll admit I'm curious.

"That's great, Cleo – what have you got?" I asked. Then I noticed that there was something different about her. Now, I'm not great at noticing when people get new clothes or get a haircut or anything, but I figured I'd be on the safe side, "I like your haircut."

She blinked at me. Oh great – this was the 'Cleo-doesn't-know-what-you're-talking-about' blink. Whoops, guess there's no haircut after all… Well, better safe than sorry, yeah?

"Rikki, I didn't get a haircut! You're too much," She giggled and rolled her eyes playfully. Well, at least she isn't mad, "But, I am missing something. Try and guess what it is!"

I took a step back from her and examined her for a second. We already established that her hair wasn't different… The clothes she was wearing were ones that I had been with her when she bought, so that wasn't it. I looked at her top to bottom and when I got to her neck I instinctively reached up and grabbed my own necklace.

"Where's your locket, Cleo?!" I was hoping she hadn't lost it. Bad things always tended to happen when one of us misplaced our lockets and I think we've all had enough bad things for one week. But, she was still smiling – even more than she was before.

"It's with Max! He's using it as a model to make a fourth one." She said. I raised my eyebrow, confused. A fourth one? It took me a second. A _fourth_ one! This kid could be a genius sometimes, she could!

"Cleo that's brilliant! What color is her stone?"

"Well, that's why I came to see you. I was thinking that we should all decide together, you me and Emma – to make it more personal, you know? Max said that it would be ready for us to pick up tomorrow, so we've got about a day to figure it out."

"That's perfect. Really, Cleo, ace job. We can talk about it tonight after Emma's night class."

"Great! I'm so glad you like the idea, Rikki! I'm headed back home to tell Emma now. Think of some colors in the meantime!" And with that, she bounced off down the sidewalk. The happiness was infectious, and already I was dreading going back to work a little less. So, we were all going to pick out the color together and she wanted me to think of some to suggest tonight. Well, I would – but I'm pretty sure I already know what color I think Cora's stone should be.

_**Cora**_

I peeled my eyes open and squinted at the obscene amount of sunlight coming through my bedroom window. Okay – maybe it wasn't obscene, but I'm still getting used to the sun. I have no clue how long I've been asleep. It was 4 o clock in the afternoon when Lewis put me in bed, that much I remember. Well. I remember a lot of things – I remember everything. Ugh. A huge wave of awkwardness just washed over me – had I really let myself say all of those things to him? I couldn't even believe it, but I guess I didn't have to worry about it anymore. I didn't know if I was doing the right thing being with Lewis – it was what _I_ wanted, and what _he_ wanted, and it _felt_ right, but was it actually happening? For all I know, I could have just dreamed that whole thing. I flopped over onto my side to look at my digital clock and a few things happened.

"_WHAT_?!" I heard the word blurt out of my mouth without even realizing that I was saying it. First, I realized that it was, in fact, 3 p.m. I had slept for almost 24 straight hours?! I bolted straight up in bed. My stomach was killing me and my body was still sore, but I wasn't so tired that it felt like I was dying anymore. Good signs, Cora. Good signs…

I used my arms to stiffly push the blanket off of my body and swung my legs around, putting my feet on the floor. I bit my slip slightly as I stood up – standing and walking felt so strange, like I was learning how to all over again. I must have looked like an idiot as I went to my open bedroom doorway and looked out at my condo carefully; the lights were still on and everything, and I heard the sound of papers being rustled. I turned the corner and held myself steadier against the wall and came down the short hallway and down the few steps into the living room. Across the room, I could see Lewis sitting at my kitchen table with some textbooks and his laptop out in front of him. I blinked and raised my eyebrows, making my way over to him shakily – how long had he been here? He better have slept in the friggin _24 hours_ that I did. I _still_ can't believe I did that.

"Lewis?"

"Oh, hey! You're awake!" He smiled and stood up and kissed my cheek shyly. My face flared up, but it was pointless to try to hide it anymore. He held a chair out for me and helped me sit, and for a second I think I just stared at him – back home in California, actually just in all of America, it's pretty rare to see a man holding a chair out for a woman. Or helping her sit in it. It was nice of him, but definitely something that would take a while for me to get used to. Maybe he was only doing it because I sucked at walking right now, but either way it was still really sweet. But I was still hung up on something.

"Yeah – and thank you… I slept for a day? _A day_, Lewis?" I asked. He smiled and sat back down with me.

"Yup, but you needed it. How are you feeling now?"

"A lot better, thanks. Please tell me you slept, too. How long have you been here? And please don't tell me you're doing homework on zero hours of sleep…"

"I slept, Cora, don't worry. After you were asleep I kinda crashed on your couch – I hope that's okay, but I didn't want to leave you right away, yanno… just in case anything happened."

"You know it's fine, and that was sweet of you," I started, smiling at him, "But I'm awake now and I'm fine, so you're off duty!" I smiled a little and sounded upbeat and looked down at the books in front of him. "What are you doing?"

"Quick homework from biology this morning."

"You _went to class_?"

"Yeah. I guess you're not used to pulling all-nighters, but I've been doing this since high school. I got enough sleep, please don't worry. I promise. And," He got up and went to the counter where I noticed a brown paper bag, "since I can't exactly cook and you shouldn't be cooking right now, I stopped on the way and brought Thai food back."

He brought me Thai food? I felt myself blinking again. I was hungry – maybe that's why my stomach hurt so badly. This was so strange… I love Thai food, don't get me wrong, but I haven't had anybody do so much for me since Mattie died. It felt warm and familiar like it had when I was still at home, but still… wow.

"All-nighters? You know me, if it's past 11 I'm usually exhausted… And you didn't have to do that, Lewis…"

"I wanted to. Besides… I guess we can technically consider this our first date." There it goes. My face must have been beet red and my hands immediately flew up to my hair, which was hanging down and just _felt_ a mess – I could only imagine how I _looked_. I blinked down at my clothes. I was still wearing the same outfit I had thrown on yesterday when I had come back; just some jeans and a t shirt that was now wrinkled from sleeping in it. Yeah, I must be looking like one classy lady right now. 100% girlfriend material. He must have been able to hear what I was thinking, "You look fine, don't worry." He came back over to the table to shut his laptop and held his hand out, toting the bag in the other hand. I felt a huge embarrassing smile spread across my face when I realized he was holding his hand out for _me_. I took it and stood up, and held onto it as we walked into the living room – still blushing and smiling like an idiot.

-

_**Meanwhile - Emma**_

"That's an easy one, Cleo!" I smirked and rolled my eyes a little as I tugged the covers up on my bed, making it neatly and fluffing my pillows up straight. She blinked at me and cocked her head to one side.

"It is?"

"Well, yes. I don't really know why, but for some reason something about her just makes me feel like it should be—" I started, but she cut me off quickly.

"WAIT!" She shrieked. I raised an eye brow at her while I tucked the corners of my sheets under my mattress.

"What's the matter?"

"I want us to talk about it _together_! Plus - and this is weird - I feel the same way. I told Rikki to come up with some ideas, she'll be home in a minute."

"Already? What time is it?"

"Almost 3:30."

"All right, all right. Go get ready for Rikki, I'll be out in a minute." I smiled and shooed her out of my room. Cleo's idea about giving Cora a locket was brilliant and she was so excited – I was too, but the only difference is that when Cleo gets excited it's sort of like a child on Christmas. And it would be a long time before I was willing to deal with Christmas-children. After another few seconds I heard the front door slam and the sound of a bag being slung onto the counter – Well, Rikki was home. I finished making my bed and stood up straight and head out to the living room where Rikki was already sprawled out on the couch and Cleo sat with her. I sat in the chair opposite them, "So, Rikki, what do you think about what Cleo's come up with?"

"I love it, really I do. And I'm pretty sure I have the perfect idea of what color the stone should be." She replied. I raised my eyebrows and exchanged a glance with Cleo – all 3 of us thought we had the perfect color picked. This had the potential to be messy, and we wanted to pick the locket up tonight and bring it to her.

"Weird… because we both do, too." I said, "How do we want to work this? Cleo, what color did you pick?"

"Well… I know it sounds corny because of her name and all, but I think that the color of her stone should be coral."

What? Had I heard her correctly? I'm pretty sure I had, and I eyed her suspiciously.

"Cleo… That's the exact same color I've picked."

"Really?" She squeaked. She was even more excited now, but she leveled herself and turned to Rikki, "Well, what color did you pick?"

"Oh. I was thinking some kind of pinky-orange." She said, sitting up on the couch. She sounded kind of defeated – as if she had been outnumbered or something. I rolled my eyes and smirked.

"Rikki, 'pinky-orange' IS coral. We all picked the same freaking color." I closed my eyes and shook my head. This was unbelievable – well, sort of. This mermaid connection between us popped up all over the place, but this was just one more thing that we could chalk up to our tails.

"What? There's a _name_ for that? Jeez, I learn something new every day I guess…" Rikki muttered and crossed her arms. Sometimes, she really made me laugh and it was one of the reasons why I loved her.

"This is incredible, guys! I'm so happy! I'm going to go call Max right now." Cleo was up off of the couch in an instant with her phone out. If I said I wasn't intrigued too, I would be lying. This was pretty cool, and it was a great idea. We wanted Cora to feel like she was one of us – she _is_ one of us. She's done so much for her and we've been but jerks in return. Lewis loves her to pieces and she seems like a nice person, so we're all trying really hard to show her that we're sorry and that we want things to be different. This would hopefully do the trick.

_**Later that day - Lewis **_

I brought Cora back to our apartment for the night because she insisted that I needed to go back home for a while, and that my roommates were probably wondering where I had been. They weren't, really, I'm sure. They've been giving me slack about Cora from day one – if I was ever gone, they assumed I was either with her or in class. They like her and everything, and whenever she visits they're both on their best behavior. But good LORD it's like having a couple of male Cleos in my house. And speak of the devils, here comes Kyle. He came up behind the couch and leaned over it, wedging his head between mine and Cora's and wrapping an arm around each of us – grinning like an idiot.

"Well, Tyler and I are headed to the mall – Gonna give you crazy kids your time alone!" And as if it weren't enough, he pinched our cheeks. He might have been one of my best friends but it didn't make him any less immature. I rolled my eyes a little and smirked.

"Have fun, guys." Cora said from her spot next to me.

"Will do, Cora. See you guys later!" He said, and within another few seconds he and Tyler were out the door.

I yawned a little – I _was_ tired. I guess I didn't even realize it, and it would feel good to have a full night of sleep – on Cora's insistence. I had let her insist on one condition – that she come over. She's already doing way better; all that saltwater made her really weak, but after trying to balance it out with the freshwater she was used to and letting her sleep she was getting right back to her old self again, but I still didn't want to leave her on her own just yet. Besides, it's not like I _minded_ having her here with me. I looked down at her – I don't think she minded, either. This was working. This was working and it was... well? It was really, really nice. We were sitting on the couch and she was half curled up leaning against my side. I had my arm wrapped around her securely – now that I had finally found the courage and finally had her, I didn't want to have to let go just yet. She seems okay with it though. The cute tired smile hasn't left her face since she woke up this afternoon.

We were still for a while until we heard Cora's phone going off, vibrating on the coffee table. I looked down at her and she cocked her head to one side, looking a little confused.

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing, I guess… You're the only person who calls me, and you're right here." She said and pushed herself up a little and reached for the phone, flipping it open, "Hello? Oh! Hi, Cleo… for me? Oh… I'm at Lewis's house for the night. One second, I'll ask him," She turned to me and I could still see the confusion written all over her face, "It's Cleo, she says they've got something for me. I'm guessing it's whatever I must have left at Max's house. She wants to know if they can come by and drop it off?" I nodded, but I was a little confused too. Cora hadn't had any belongings with her when we had found her, so there wasn't anything to have left at Max's place. But I knew the girls were trying to make nice with Cora now and I wanted it to happen too. "Cleo? He says that would be fine… okay. Well, all right – see you soon!" She hung up and put the phone back on the table and my stupid grin spread back across my face when she went right back to her spot leaning against me again. I was happier than I'd been in a long, long time, and I couldn't really think of anything that could make today any better. But, I was curious to see what Cleo and the girls have up their sleeve. They haven't told me anything, but I can only imagine. Hopefully whatever they're doing will convince Cora that they've changed. I guess we'll see, then.

-

**A/N**: So they all came up with the same color for Cora's stone! What do you guys think about the color they picked for her? I felt like it fit her, but let me know what you all think! I love hearing what my readers have to say. : ] I think that the next chapter may be the last one before the 'epilogue,' so please review and let me know how you're feeling about the story – **81 reviews for chapter 22/the finale!** Wow, I can't believe it's almost over. Take care everyone!


	22. Belonging

**A/N**: Welcome to the final chapter of Belonging! I don't have a whole lot to say so let's just jump right into it! It's been incredible writing for you all and I hope that you all enjoy the final installment of the story. Take care and be well, everyone!

-

The girls had stopped at Max's home along the way to Lewis's apartment to pick up the locket. He gave Cleo her locket back first and she quickly put it back on her neck where it belonged – it had been for a good cause that she had been without it, but she felt like a part of her had been missing for the past day. When Max pulled out Cora's locket and showed it to the girls they were ecstatic. It was perfect; it looked just like Emma, Cleo and Rikki's lockets with the exception of the coral-colored stone. He smiled, seeing how in awe they were and the happy wrinkles at the corners of his eyes deepened.

"You girls have done right by her, yanno. You know what that color signifies, don't you?" He asked. The girls looked at each other briefly before shaking their heads.

"No, we have no idea. But for some reason it just sort of stuck out to us – it felt right for her." Emma replied. It had been the truth – none of them had been able to come up with reasons why it felt so right, but they knew that it was. Max's smile grew wider and dropped the locket into Rikki's hand.

"Well," He started, pulling a book off of his shelf and thumbing through the pages. He stopped a little more than halfway through and smiled, handing the open book to Cleo, "I would say that you hit the nail on the head. You made a good choice, girls." Emma blinked down at the book in Cleo's hands and scanned the page briefly before reaching the paragraph they were looking for and read it aloud.

" 'The color coral is often representative of the warmth of our mother Earth. Because coral is a gift from the ocean, many cultures consider it to carry with it connotations of mother Earth's careful protection of all things in nature. In addition to signifying softness and friendliness, coral also signifies energy and adventure.'" She finished reading the small paragraph slowly and looked up, closing the book and looking at Cleo and Rikki both of whom had expressions of pleased shock on their faces, "Wow. I guess we _did_ pick the right color."

"I second that." Rikki muttered in surprise.

"Thirded!" Cleo squeaked excitedly, "I think we ought to bring this over to her now. Emma, have you got the box?" She asked. Emma nodded and reached into her purse. She dug around for a few seconds before presenting a neat black velvet jewelry box. To an outsider it may have just appeared to be a regular jewelry box, but to Emma it was much more special than that. This was the box that she had been keeping her necklace in whenever she took it off, which was rare but had to happen occasionally. Whenever her necklace was in that box she knew that nothing bad would happen to it and it never did. Now she wanted to pass that safety off to Cora – just as a little something extra from her. She opened the box and Rikki lay the necklace inside and finally Emma carefully snapped it securely shut and slipped it back into her bag.

"Thank you so much for everything, Max. We really appreciate this!" Emma smiled brightly at the old man that had become almost an uncle to them over the years and he smiled back.

"Any time, girls. She'll love it, don't worry," He smiled happily at the three girls and walked with them to the door, "Don't be nervous – it's Cora. She wants things to be all right between you all and her just as much as you do. Good luck!"

"Thanks, Max!" Rikki smiled nervously and with that the three of them were off to walk the few blocks to Lewis's apartment.

-

The knock on the apartment door is what finally broke Lewis and Cora away from watching their favorite show, 'Mythbusters,' on the couch. He sighed quietly and pulled his arm out from around her and pushed himself up. Cora put her legs back down on the floor and stood up too, and Lewis smiled at her.

"You don't have to get up, you should be staying put." He said, but couldn't push the smile off of his face. He wanted her to stay resting but the fact that she had gotten up with him made him happy. She smirked shyly and pulled her hands out of her sweatshirt pockets.

"I don't mind." Her voice was quiet and she walked with him to the front door, idly slipping her hand into his and standing slightly behind him as Lewis pulled the door open. They were met by Rikki, Cleo and Emma, all of whom had nervous looks on their faces – until of course, Cleo noticed that Lewis and Cora were holding hands and her face lit up.

"Hey, guys. Come in," Lewis smiled tiredly at his friends and he and Cora stood aside to let them through the door. Cora bit her lip slightly and stood back a little as the girls passed her – she knew she hadn't necessarily done anything wrong this time around, but she was couldn't help but be nervous around the girls – it was second nature to be, now. She hoped more than anything that they really didn't still think she was a killer like they had said, but she didn't want to give off any possible signs that she might still be a threat so she subconsciously put her free hand back into her pocket and stood a little bit behind Lewis as all five of them walked into the living room. Emma, Cleo and Rikki sat on the long couch and Lewis and Cora sat down on the love seat to the side of them, "So what's up, guys?" Lewis asked. The girls were quiet, looking at each other briefly before Cora spoke up quietly.

"Did I leave something at Max's house? Cleo, I'm sorry I don't have your pajamas with me… they're back at my house; I washed them and everything just a few hours ago. I can go get them if you want, though?" She asked. She was rambling a little and Lewis could tell she was nervous. He frowned a little and looked up at Cleo briefly before looking down at Cora again.

"You're not going anywhere else tonight. Besides, I don't think that's what they came over here for… is it, guys?" Lewis asked the girls. It was somewhat rhetorical – he could tell by how nervous and fidgety they looked that there was more to the story than returning things.

"No, that's not what we came over here for. Cora, we have something for you – and it's not anything you might have left at Max's house." Emma voice was kind and calm, thankfully putting everyone a little more at ease. Cora blinked and furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"I don't understand…" She said quietly and cast a nervous glance at Lewis. His face was calm, reassuring her that she shouldn't be worried. However, he was a little perplexed as well but then Rikki spoke next.

"Cora, we knew that as soon as this whole thing was over that you would do your damnest to stay out of our way even though _we_ were the ones that screwed up. But we really meant it when we said we were sorry, and we really want to give this whole thing another shot if you'll have us." Even Rikki's voice was free of harshness and it took Cora aback for a second. She felt her head tilt to the side curiously but still couldn't form her mouth around any words. Cleo saw that she was struggling with what they were trying to tell her as much as they were struggling to find the right words to say and so she leaned forward and smiled warmly at the bewildered girl sitting next to her best friend.

"If you'll have us," Cleo continued Rikki's sentence, "we want to be your friends, Cora. We really, really do. We don't want to have you off on your own anymore, we want you _with_ us as _one_ of us. No mermaid should have to be on her own in this kind of world, it's dangerous."

"And yes, we know that your powers aren't working at the moment but we have faith that they'll come back. And we don't just mean that we want you to be your friends until your powers come back – after that, too," Emma smiled softly at the girl sitting across from them watching them.

Cora's mouth dropped open slightly; this didn't feel like they were lying, it felt genuine and real and she blinked quietly – did this really mean that they wanted her around? She wanted things to be okay between them more than anything, but she had been so convinced that this was the last thing that they wanted that she had long since abandoned all hope of that ever happening. She tried starting a sentence a few times but still had no idea what she was supposed to say and so she stuttered a little bit.

"But… I thought… I mean I didn't _think_…"

"…Didn't think that we would want that?" Rikki cut in quietly and finished her sentence, her mouth curved up at the side in a half-smirk, "We want that, Cora. We were just too stupid and stubborn to let it happen sooner. But we really want this to work. I've been kinda quiet about it because emotional crap and _feelings_ aren't really my thing so bear with me, but we feel a pretty strong connection to you. The mermaid thing is a lot bigger than all of us and we know that, but we don't just want you around for the mermaid-sake of it. You belong here; it might sound weird to you but you do. If you left or if you kept yourself away from us we would feel like something big was missing. I know that after how badly I screwed up it's going to be hard to completely start over but that's what we want to do."

"And," Emma spoke up, her warm smile never faltering, "We wanted you to know how much we meant it so we brought you something." She smiled and reached into her purse and carefully pulled out the velvet jewelry box. She stood up and walked over to Cora and smiled down at her and held out the box. Cora glanced up at her quietly and lifted her hand slightly but glanced carefully at Cleo and Rikki before reaching out the rest of the way and taking the box from Emma gently. Emma smiled again before returning to her seat and Cora sat at Lewis's side merely holding the box and staring down at it quietly. Lewis cast his eyes sideways at her and subconsciously tightened his arm around her securely. He had no clue what was in the box, but he wasn't worried – he was curious, but he wasn't worried. The girls may not have been so trusting lately and it had made him mad, but that certainly didn't mean that he would be untrusting too. He knew that they wanted to do right by Cora and he did trust them.

"Open it, it's killing me!" Cleo let out a sigh of excited exasperation after just a few seconds and leaned forward on her knees watching the dark-haired girl clutching the velvet box. Cora looked up at her and smiled softly before looking down at the box. Simply holding it in her hand had already put her more at ease and in some way confirmed to her that the girls weren't mad at her anymore – regardless of the fact that she had no idea what was inside. She bit her lip gently and pulled the box open and froze when she saw what was inside. There was complete silence for a few seconds and her mouth dropped open slightly but she couldn't bring herself to touch it just yet. Her brown eyes darted around the room at the three smiling girls and then up at Lewis whose face had completely lit up. He had thought that his day couldn't get any better but this gift was _brilliant_. Cora stared hard at the glinting silver in the box for a minute before finally just barely letting her fingers brush against it – almost afraid that if she touched it that it would disappear. A dazed, happy tired smile slowly made its way onto her face before she was able to manage to look up at the girls.

"This… this is incredible… You guys didn't have to do this, I can't even… I don't… Wow. It's… it's beautiful."

"Do you like it?!" Cleo couldn't contain herself. She had tried to be quiet, really she had. But it actually was killing her now, and she didn't bother to take into account that fact that Cora had already given her the answer. Cora didn't mind, however. Her tired face had brightened and her smile and stretched wider.

"I love it, Cleo. I don't know how to thank the three of you, really I don't. Please tell me how I can thank you for this?"

"You've done way more than enough, Cora. This is _our_ way of thanking _you_, and we really hope you'll accept it." Cleo was beaming and her face was so hopeful that Cora couldn't help but smile back.

"Of course I accept it. This is all I've wanted this whole time. Well, you know… not the _necklace_, but… to be able to be closer to you guys."

"We know what you mean, don't worry. We're just sorry that it took us so long to come to our senses!" Emma smiled and leaned forward in her seat. Cora's smile grew and she glanced shyly at the girls and then up at Lewis, still holding the box carefully in her hands. Lewis grinned and looked down at her.

"Aren't you gonna put it on?" He asked, raising his eyebrow. He was really just teasing all four girls now – he knew she would and he also knew that the girls, especially Cleo, were dying for her to put it on. Cora bit her almost completely healed lower lip and smiled shyly before reaching into the box and picking up the necklace carefully. She held it in her hands for a few seconds, staring down at it. Lewis smiled and reached down gently taking it out of her hands and unclasped it. Moving her hair off to the side and out of the way he fumbled with it clumsily for a second at the back of her neck before finally clasping it shut securely with a triumphant smile on his face.

Cora blushed slightly and pulled her hair back into place and gently brought her fingers to the silver locket resting between her collarbones, brushing her thumb up against the coral stone at the top and smiled. She hadn't failed after all. She had come to Australia to do what she had had to do and _hadn't failed_, and as a result had found others like her who genuinely wanted her around. The warm, tired smile plastered on her face couldn't be removed even by the purely overwhelming flood of emotions that she was feeling at that moment and she was shaken out of her reverie by a curly-haired figure at her other side who was now hugging her tightly – Cleo.

"Welcome to the family, Cora!"

-

_**One Week Later – Rikki**_

The week since we'd given Cora her locket has been pretty uneventful so far, but in the nicest way possible. After the eventfulness of the last few months, having nothing going on was kinda nice. Cora came on her first swim with us a few days ago and we took her on her first trip to Mako Island to show her where it all started for the three of us. I'm glad that things have worked out for us – I mean, I'm not glad that it took the girl almost being _killed_ for it to happen, but I'm glad that she's with us and with Captain Science now. She might be a dork but actually, she's pretty cool and nice, and she makes _incredible_ chili. And possibly best yet, now Emma has somebody to drag on her jogs with her instead of trying (and failing) to get me or Cleo to come. It might have taken a while but I guess now I know why Lewis likes her. One thing that worries us is that her powers still haven't come back yet even though she's still a pretty strong Protector which could be a really potentially dangerous combination. But, we're gonna cross those bridges when we come to them. Until then we're just going to do whatever we have to do to keep each other safe, and now that Cora is one of us that means her too.

Now I'm sitting around once again bored at work on a Saturday. I don't even know why they bother opening banks on Saturdays, nobody ever friggin comes IN. Ever. But it's only for another hour and at least I'm getting paid, right? I sighed and rank my fingers up through my hair idly clicking the keys on my computer around in my riveting game of Tetris. I have no idea how long I had been playing but after a while I noticed a person come through the door and who was now standing in front of my desk. I held in a bored sigh and paused my game and without looking up I pulled out my boss's appointment book that he leaves with me every morning and asked the same question I ask everybody.

"Do you have an appointment?" I asked while I flipped through the pages to today's date. When I reached the most recent page of the book I froze a little when I saw a familiar name at the bottom of the list. The voice I heard next made my blood run cold.

"As a matter of fact, I do. Hello, Rikki – It's so nice to see you."

I looked up. Standing in front of me was none other than Linda Denman. Keep it cool, Rikki. You hate her but she's not supposed to know that you destroyed her lab.

"Hi, Dr. Denman. I didn't know you were still hanging around the Gold Coast these days."

"Oh, well I wasn't supposed to be. I was on my way to Canada for my newest experiment but I've run into a bit of a setback. You may have heard, but my lab was destroyed the other day in a freak-storm. Quite strange… But as you can imagine I've put my trip on indefinite hold because of it," She paused and I swear I saw her give me a look. _The_ look, that knowing look that you dread getting from parents and teachers. She knows something. "We've got some financial matters to attend to because of how much was ruined so I'm here to talk some things over with your boss. Is he in?" Her voice is so sickeningly sweet I could just punch her in the face. But instead I forced my nicest most professional smile and pushed a button on my phone.

"Mr. Vikaars, your 4:00 is here."

"Send her in, Rikki – Thanks." I heard my boss's voice come back through the speaker and smiled at Denman.

"Back and to your left." I directed her and I could swear that I saw her glare at me through her forced smile, and then she was gone, "Ohh crap…" I flung my drawer open and grabbed my phone where I had stashed it last time my boss walked out of his office. I quickly slid it open and started texting a mass message to Cora, Lewis, Emma and Cleo as fast as my fingers would let me:

'We have a VERY big problem.'

-

**END**

**-**

**A/N**: It's overrrr! Thank you all so much for reading the story! What did you think? Let me know! I love hearing from you all and I welcome PMs as well! : D To those of you who were wondering about Denman, because I know there were definitely a few of you – dun dun dunnnn, she ain't gone yet! LOL I know, I know. I left another cliffhanger. **I hope you all enjoyed **_**Belonging**_**, and look out for the sequel which will be starting very soon (if you guys want it, that is)!** : D Reviews are gorgeous and so are all of you, hoping you're all doing well!

-Kate


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